Runa liked his new job much more than the one which he performed in the Stonewood settlement. His old job was simple fruit and vegetable gathering, something he definitely not despised… but also it never allowed him to spread his wings, metaphorical and real. Though his wings always were well concealed, like a secret all knew.

When he was sent to Skeksis castle to supply them with food, he never suspected that the all-admired skeksis lord would look at him with a gracious eye. All because… he knew perfectly how to do flawless make-up.

skekEkt allowed him to paint his nails, when he found him in his atelier. Runa was sure that he would call guards and seize him, but when the lord saw how well he performed on himself, the question was not why he came here, but how often he would be coming, to help skekEkt with daily beauty rituals.

“Ah, small gelfling,” the lord beamed everytime Runa made magic with his hands. “How dared you to hide in that filthy stone in the woods. You are a master of beauty! Such crafty fingers… and to think that you could lose them so easily in these awful forests, where beasts roam!”

A new life touched Runa. Caressed him and gave him a fresh and newly found self-confidence.

Not that other skeksis were as good as his new master. Chamberlain seemed to look at him, when he suspected Runa didn’t see. He was everywhere in the castle, like he was able to copy himself or build other skekSils in the laboratory, with the help of fear-inducing Scientist. Runa had to admit that he was scared of him. But not as much as of Ritual Master. His comments were almost always brushing over inappropriate. It was not hard to imagine skekZok just capturing him and doing some unspeakable things.

The Emperor was indifferent and his hazy gaze never landed on him for more than a small second. And that suited Runa, as he learned that skekSo can be capricious and when he is in a bad mood, better all living creatures not cross his way.

But when he was entering skekEkt’s atelier, all worries were disappearing and the glitter and the powders and the colors, they all were taking him by the hand and greeted in the world of pure beauty.

His life became a dream, a fairytale, which he never was aware he needed.

But some days were harder. When skekSo sent for him to grind an unique eyeliner. Runa was sure this day would remain in his memory forever. And when the Gourmand was sure that showing physical affection to his master on his, Runa’s eyes, was a good idea. He never was that embarrassed.

But the worst came, when hot summer started to bite the skin with the power of all suns.

“Runa, Runa…” skekEkt was fanning himself. His beautiful face was gleaming under the portion of make-up – and sweat.

“Anything I can do for you, my lord?” he smiled. He learned that skekEkt can be very kind and even has a sense of humor. That was one of the better sides of his job.

“I recommend your unusual skill, child. The Hunter comes today, so better look… as wild as you can… if you can” skekEkt stull fanned himself and the topic was closed but Runa was sweating too, like a fizzgig… and not because it was hot. Well, partially.

The Hunter! The dreadful forest beast! How could the master even think it was a good idea to bring him here… for what? Runa hoped that skekEkt won’t try to force him to do – oh, Thra – a make-up to him! But he didn’t know of any other skills that he possessed and which could be useful for someone who lived in the woods… oh gods. An unwanted thought creeped into his mind, that maybe his master sold him to that beast and he will use it as his new hunting target. But that quickly was brushed off by common sense.

Not his master. No, not at all.

Runa was shaking all evening. It was like waiting for an execution and he observed that his lord also was nervous. He was aware that the Hunter is a rare guest in the castle and no skeksis really liked his company. Or – saying more truthfully – all are scared of him to death.

Why did his lord recommend his talents to him, then?

When the Hunter arrived, he did it through the window, startling them both. When Runa looked in his direction, he saw only two green lights in place of the eyes and shadows within shadows, concealing the beast in the night’s embrace.

“Ah, skekMal!” skekEkt squeaked, almost throwing off his own make-up equipment. “Ah… why you never use the door… that way you wouldn’t have to crawl over the wall, like a crystal bat hehee…”

skekMal didn’t reply but looked at him with intensity. skekEkt suddenly seemed oddly pale.

The silence was prolonging, so Runa decided to stop this ridiculous situation and spoke.

“My lord… Hunter… I am aware you did not come here to use my make-up skills. You can use me, as you wish, though.

A chuckle came from the shadows and then, skekMal moved closer. His skull mask, emerging from the dark, scared Runa a bit, but not as much as he thought it could.

skekMal quickly grabbed him by the hand and started to examine it. Runa screamed, it was a fast, sharp and sudden scream, more caused by being surprised than by pain. The Hunter looked at his fingers for a long time, which seemed eternity and then, showcasing his whole array of talons, he rasped.

“So… boy. Sharpen them. Because I am here only for that and Thra knows how I hate this place.”

And it all fell into its right place.

That, he could do. A beauty ritual, maybe a bit different than ones he usually did… not with such long and bloodied talons, with stains of black soil and who knows what else.

skekMal was looking at him all the time while he worked. One talon after another, until they resembled sharp blades, deadly and ready to kill. Runa was aware of what skekMal will do with them later, tearing the life from some creature. But he knew that it’s good work, beauty is beauty, even if it is in the form of a predatory plant… or a hunter.

The Hunter didn’t tell how he liked his performance. He simply disappeared in the night, like he never was here.

skekEkt fanned himself once again and giggled.

“I thought he would eat you, little one. How good that he didn’t want to.”

And all was good and all was beautiful. The elements again were smooth and colorful.

Until Runa realized that his master was serious.

skekSo’s nightmares were very vivid. Always. Like a flash of light in pitch-black darkness. He liked to blame his duties, but the truth was, in fact, hard to admit, that he simply liked to make all thing more complicated.

He was an Emperor and because all bowed to him until they reached the level of his feet, he had to make his own problems. Without them he wouldn’t be a skeksis. He wouldn’t be skekSo.

This particular nightmare was revolving – as always lately – around the Hunter. skekMal, hunting along that wretched Stonewood assisstant, laughing with her by the stream, allowing her to burn the meat above the fire and then… taking her on the grass, tail sweeping the kindling in ecstasy, so different than one he offered him, his only lover and only source of bodily thrill.

He would so prefer – really – if it was other skeksis. He knew that with other skeksis he would not have a problem, since they all were all but monogamic. He would even not tear his robes, if it was skekSil coming to the Hunter, begging him to ravish him. It was calculated into the fact, that skekMal couldn’t be chained.

But deep in the woods, with gelfling, sharing passion for hunting… it was way too intimate and too much resembled what they both had.

And he was the Emperor.

Maybe he couldn’t chain the Hunter, but Thra forbids if he didn’t want the thread that bound them strong as skekMal’s arms and unique. Oh, so unique and rare.

He didn’t know if skekMal bed this gelfling, but his running mind liked to take it for granted.

He could do it. So he did.

Nothing can stop the hunt.

When skekMal joined them all on the feast, skekSo had a whole array of proofs and accusations, which he knew he can’t word nor he wants. In fact, he had nothing. Nothing in his thin hands that liked to be held by skekMal when he rutted him.

What makes you come back to me, when you have your woods, your hunt and your little Stonewood servant huntress?

This was a peculiar kind of torment, which he was aware he could avoid. skekMal never promised him anything and never told him he won’t take other partners, more even, they agreed they can. But this wormed into skekSo’s spine and melted his marrow.

And he almost agreed on questioning caress of skekSil’s talons over the base of his tale.

Almost.

Because he knew, that with skekMal, a talk can fix everything. As wild as he was, as loving to act and tear into the heart of things, skekMal was good listener and even better explainer. And they both knew each other too well to hide this for too long.

It was you who told him to take the gelfling on the hunts. You ordered him to have her by his side. Why you worry then?

“I see your mind is absent today, your highness” a deep voice and skekSo was already on his stomach, allowing skekMal to groom him, while all other skeksis slept in a pile, oblivious on anything that happened in the wake.

“I… I consider your observation valid.” he muttered, feeling as Hunter’s hands and beak take care of his neck. Thra, but had he a skilled beak.

“If I didn’t know you better, I would say you worry.”

“Maybe… the skeksis empire must thrive and I am an only way to secure it happening” skekSo feigned nonchalance, something he thought he was really good at.

skekMal chuckled. A warm chuckle just into his feathers. Not mocking, not at all. Knowing.

“I would assume the skeksis empire would prefer to not rely on gefling so much.”

The gelfling! Curse it.

“Indeed, skekMal. Their lives are frail and short and who knows what time brings.”

The Hunter continued to part his feathers, going straight against his fragile skin. skekSo sighed.

“Probably not good partners for any interests that involve Thra and it’s continuation” he breathed into Emperor’s back.

“Not good partners, yes.”

The sound the Hunter made could be only a laughter, but skekSo’s fathers were thick and silenced it into a very choking guttural growl.

“Something wrong, skekMal?” a question as smooth as silk.

“I didn’t take her.”

“Pardon?”

“I didn’t take her. It’s that why you worry so much. That I took her. I didn’t.”

skekSo didn’t know actually if to feel offended by his assumption or relieved. But the heavy pressure in his chest reminded him of sinking stones now.

“Ah.”

That was all the Emperor could say. And that seemingly was completely enough.

*

“We are all too dependant from gelfling, skekMal.”

“Shall I hunt them all down, so you slept better and could start sustaining yourself without any temptation, your highness?”

“Would you?”

“No.”

“Then it’s out of question.”

And all was good again.

skekMal’s was bringing no news for three unum and urVa started to worry. Not in a possessive, foolish kind of way, which was under them both – they go and come as they pleased and neither of them had an urge to control the other.

No, in a way of an old friend who didn’t see you for long and wonders if everything is alright and you are sound.

skekMal could overcome more dangers than anyone, yet a lingering yearning started to put a spell on urVa’s soul. They were one, even if separated. They were created as one, on a distant world, where everything was made of pure light and white towers scraped the skies with their needle-like peaks.

He very often tried to remember how it was to be MalVa. Some nights he was waking up from a fleeting dream, and he knew skekMal was waking from it too, even if he was on the other side of Thra. MalVa was wild, untamed like the wind but also rational and filled with wisdom. He liked to think that he took the wisdom for himself, and the rational part too, but he was aware skekMal was not a fool. They were in some way misdivided. Neither of them got a full dose of the urskek characteristics, either dark of light.

urVa wondered how much skekMal remembers from life before, if more than him, but he knew that better not to ask. skekMal reacted to all conversations about his previous self with unnatural aggression, this time towards him. It was so shocking and unpleasant that urVa didn’t try again.

The Archer made a bonfire. Before skekMal’s cave. Like a glimpse of light could call him back, like it was similar to the horn the skeksis had for him. Yet urVa would never use a horn, the horn had too much of a commanding feel to it. He subtly brushed skekMal’s consciousness with tiny pleasant strokes.

Come back. I miss you.

skekMal laughed at the horn, oh yes. And was coming on the sound of it, only if he felt like it. The skeksis stopped hoping that he would arrive like in his youth, ready to indulge in whatever the castle planned and enjoyed. The Hunter once told his counterpart that castle skeksis grew stale and boring, just because they knew he would come. Better to not come, keep them on their toes and show them that skekMal is not their dark fulfillment, supplier of thrill.

He was the Hunter. And only that.

For urVa, he was more than anything.

The fire was bursting into the air, with clear, white-and-yellow flame. Come back. I need you.

urVa never considered himself a sentimental kind, but lack of skekMal and his blunt tongue was similar to lack of limb. His raw deep laughter. His hard skin, when he touched him. It all was more than thrill the skeksis craved for. He only hoped skekMal knows that and shares it.

One hour.

Three.

Seven.

urVa knew that this night, skekMal won’t come. The fire will burn out in the morning and the he will set a new flame again, each and every night, to send a hopeful message through the bond they shared.

Come back. My skekMal.

The Archer eventually made his bedding of furs skekMal always was leaving in his cave – the one cave urVa gave him himself, to keep his trophies in and which became eventually his home. The furs smelled of leather and grass, of old bones and skin, scents that engulfed him and allowed him to close his eyes. And sleep.

Deep night reigned over the woods when urVa felt a hard and lean body against his back. skekMal seemed desperate to steal as much pressure from him as possible. He was hungry. For closeness. And for him.

He was touch starved and urVa felt the same, after the whole three unum of loneliness.

“skekMal” the Archer huffed, feeling as the Hunter embraced him with all six limbs.

And everything fell into its place.

You came back. Be one with me.

The Hunter sat next to urVa without announcing himself. The Archer didn’t sense prey on him, he smelled more of old roots and damp leaves – a pleasant scent which he always preferred on him. skekMal took a blade and without saying a word, he started to examine it, like it was a gift from Aughra herself. And even then, the Hunter would not spare so much attention on it.

urVa felt a pang of worry. He never doubted skekMal could and was able to understand his latest bond with a gelfling. Issi was a refreshing change, someone who thought exactly like him and had the same priorities in life. But maybe that was the problem. skekMal was not monogamous, but never was thinking in an urru way. Maybe his darker, skeksis soul found an offense in it, in taking a gelfling as companion.

Silence prolonged. Blade didn’t have even a slightest spot that wasn’t examined. skekMal was dark and ominous and that made urVa sure that he was angry.

He never was planning to upset him. Guilt overwhelmed him. So… he decided to talk, speak first. Even if he was endangering himself on a slew of furious accusations.

“skekMal…” he started, doubtfully. “I think I know why you are angry. It wasn’t purposeful. I just felt the bond, a primal bond of the mind. Minds can be as treacherous as souls… but…”

skekMal growled, annoyed that the blade doesn’t have anything new to tell him. And of course on urVa who broke the bond with him, taking another into his cave and tree.

“I was afraid of that. I was almost sure you won’t but I know your darkness, skekMal. I accept it of course, but it pains me that—”

skekMal stopped examining the knife and looked at him with narrowed brows.

“I thought we were sharing a good moment by the bonfire, Archer. A peaceful one. You always insisted on it.”

urVa’s expression didn’t become wise. It became flabbergasted, at best, at worst, stupid. skekMal chuckled, there was something mischievous in it and urVa’s heart jumped.

“You really thought I would be jealous, urVa?” the Hunter grinned at him with a full array of his sharp fangs. “You should know us better than that.”

The Archer huffed and laughed quite sheepishly.

“You thought that after my long relationship with the good Emperor, I will be throwing tantrums like skekEkt seeing a crawly? I am not skekEkt and I am not skekZok” his eyes were playful, nothing dangerous and dark which urVa thought he saw in him just moments ago.

“Do you approve?” urVa smiled at him, feeling evident relief, but then, a slight suspicion that skekMal arranged the whole scene purposefully, to tickle him in the wrong way and see him groaning in worry.

That was so skekMal, this cat and mouse play, this almost cruel enjoyment from his confusion, that he inhaled deeply and… exhaled. He should know him better, indeed. He should know them better.

“And you thought you were immune to the gelfling “charm”” scoffed skekMal, amused. “Nothing on Thra is certain, it shifts and swells like skekAyuk’s stomach.”

“If you throw such an insult at poor skekAyuk…”

“I am fully aware of the flaws of all the skeksis.”

Yes, but not of your own, just had to think urVa, and scolded himself for even thinking so, in this moment of relief.

“I think I can meet you with Issi” the smile on urVa’s face became wide and open like a sun on a clear sky..

“Fetch him ” SkekMal waved with his hand dismissively.

urVa slowly, not exactly like an urru who could walk the boughs and run after Hunter for long miles, stood up and just as slowly shook a little lump on the grass, covered in blankets. A silent sight was heard and a messy blue-and-black hair emerged, to reveal an almost angelic face of a Stonewood gelfling. Issi had to sleep really tight, as his eyelids were heavy.

“urVa? Something happened?” the gelfling murmured  trying to place himself in this world, after hard and safe slumber.

“I wanted you to meet my skeksis. The one I told you. The Shadow from the Woods. The Hunter” urVa’s voice was soft like a balm on a wound.

“I needed to see the eyes of my prey before I shred it to pieces. Good meat is better when is made to face me when dying. And beg. Begging is like the strongest spice.”

Issi held his breath and almost choked and urVa thought that skekMal will always remain skekMal.

Awfully improper. Cruel in his teasings.

And not at all jealous.

Which was paying up for all his beloved flaws.

He told him once that he would follow him to the death and back. That he would sacrifice his own life, to protect him.

Not in these words, of course, such sentiments were good for the gelfling. But every fiber of his being was telling him that he is ready for sacrifices, if they are needed, and when they are needed. The thread that bound them was jagged as sharp blade, demanding blood from them both, cutting their bodies and souls most ecstaticaly, leaving them breathless, and owning each other more with every passing day. It was bond that was giving and taking, eating them alive and spitting them out more and more fulfilled.

But now, when he stood before him, and skekSo was showing him the rotten flesh of his own, the wounds that couldn’t be cured by any rational mean – he couldn’t help him.

He would lick these cursed wounds, if that was meant to bring him back from the path that led to dark well filled with horrors.

But he won’t sacrifice one thing that held him tighter than skekSo’s talons – Thra.

Not gelfling, not podling.

Thra and it’s heart. It held him in sweet, painful, intoxicating, deadly embrace, giving him blood and pumping lust for life into his veins.

And this, he couldn’t sacrifice to the death that would consume it, the purple venom that would shatter it along with himself.

Because he was child of Thra, even in not Thra-born. Fit with his being into caves of Grot, into the Dark Forest and the Crystal Desert. How could he destroy what kept him alive?

The competition idea started to grow stale for the Hunter. During the eighty trine of rule celebration, the skeksis were bold, young, agile and joyous… but also clumsy and lazy. He liked them enough as that. But as opponents in any competition, they were unworthy to raise the talon. Adding the gelfling competitors to it, it looked like a catching the wind with teeth. The teeth was this idea, the wind… skekMal.

skekSo managed to get the reluctant agreement from his beak, by very cohersive maneuvers, which included an inverbal plead of just making the Emperor happy – which he never dodged and always was willing to.

Now, during the race, which was of course skekAyuk’s idea (skekAyuk didn’t compete, but waited for all of them with a huge feast, along the one who persuade him and skekEkt, who felt the chase would destroy his newly sewn robes) – he didn’t even hear the other skeksis and gelfling which were left behind. He was sure he won’t hear them for a ,long time.

He almost heard a sensual murmur of skekSo in his ear.

“Who could ever beat the Hunter? Who would even dare?”

Oh yes, such a trivial thing, but in Emperor’s beak it sounded like a song.

Not that he didn’t have his own ways to disarm skekSo. Which worked even better than simply words.

He crawled on the first tree in a sight and looked into the horizon.

Here they were. All in mud, trampling. He almost heard curses  they tossed around. A jubilous laughter rose in his chest, he couldn’t not admire them a little. They were young and agile, but appreciating pillows, comfort and service. The fact they agreed to participate in this, worked on their behalf.

When he passed between the trees, breathing in the scent of fresh moss and summer breeze, he still wondered, how they can live without it. Without the hunt. Without the comort of sleeping under stars.

It felt… wrong. And unsafe, to be locked within the crystal walls.

The open space, the woods, the grains of sand between his talons and the dark misty mountains which asked him to take a chance with them, challenging him…  it was the life. It was the soul of it.

*

When the other skeksis started to gather at the finish, a large meadow adapted to it by… well, skekMal, because others would never know how to make a meadow safe enough to party, skekMal was sitting with dark and undeciphered expression near the Emperor, his chest dewed with slight sweat. He promised himself to bath in a stream as soon, as this ridiculous thing will end.

skekSo was leaning to him, saying something, but he was to restless to even notice, as much as he felt comfortable in Emperor’s company.

The skeksis cursed and cursed and gazed at skekMal with something not unlike fond jealousy. They knew he will win. But they liked him too much, they cherished his rare company too much, to really be jealous. And that he was most fond of today, their light agreement on the loss, which was obvious to them. They weren’t bad after all. They only had different habits and different views on what is good and what is unwanted.

The prize, a bow encrusted with iron, lay before him. It was skekSo’s idea, and he appreciated thinking of him. But he never used a bow, nor wanted to. He liked hunting with blades, with talons and teeth, then and only then, he felt he really makes one with his prey. Bow was a weapon he never considered, but he knew who did and that alone, was making him less annoyed and more assured that all of this won’t go to waste.

“Ah, skekMal, what a gorgeous sight it was, to see you emerge from the woods, all sweated and strong, like a god of the forest!” beamed skekEkt, handing him a cup of wine. “I should do a wall ornament depicting this scene! A very… stimulating one.”

skekSo observed the Hunter with narrowed eyes, which were all but mischievous.

skekMal sipped the wine and allowed skekOk and skekZok to drag him into a wild dance. Or at least what they considered wild.

*

This night, a bow appeared under the tree urVa occupied. The Archer didn’t need to wonder who lay it there. The ornaments were typical skeksis effort and only one creature would come up and leave it here without alarming him.

“Thank you, skekMal” he murmured fondly, examining the flawless iron and leather work.

The fact that the Hunter didn’t hand him it personally didn’t amaze him.

It was skekMal. And he appreciated him just as he was.

“… and then, that moron skekZok hanged lights on the crystal. To make it look more festive.”

Ariya chuckled heartily. For her, life in the castle was a mix of strange, awful and interesting. The skeksis didn’t seem to her as a looming unknown amymore, but more a silly and cruel kids tearing off butterfly wings. All because her mate painted them in such light. And she knew the Hunter never lied.

“So… skekZok liked things… flashy?” she chuckled.

skekMal growled, deep. It was this kind of growl that promised dance by the fire, with hair and feather ruffled by the wind.

And good jokes along the way.

“Yes. Flashy as his naked ass in the morning bath.”

This time Ariya bursted in laughter. The way the Hunter disliked other skeksis seemed as natural as… funny. Ariya knew they are inferior to him, at least in terms of survival. But she was finding it amusing how he liked to ridicule them. It was a breath of fresh air, after the last snowstorms that inhabited their woods.

“Tell me more” she urged.

An usual glint of joy beamed in his eyes.

And she knew it will be another tale showing the castle skeksis in bad light.

She couldn’t wait.

“The castle looked awful in those ornaments of his. Like an old podling dressed in silk and gauze. It almost weeped with annoyance as they were hanging crystal orbs all along the way” he huffed warm air into the freezing aura around them. “But skekZok liked it. Pitiful wretch wanted to make us all believe that it appeases gods that he made up by himself.”

Ariya rolled her eyes.

“Heh. Yes, many gods were invented during long nights skekZok spent alone, to purify himself before rites. All the others indulged with each other restlessly and he was losing all the fun.”

Ariya swatted him in the the arm but he knew well enough she laughs internally.

“I see more gods in these woods, than I have ever seen by his side. During solstice all gods were hiding in my forest, to not see how he insults them with his incantations. All made up.”

“And you took part in all of it?” she was curious.

“Of course. skekSo was expecting me there. Back then, I liked him too much to say no.”

“But now…”

“Now he turned his back on me.”

Ariya knew that path of skekMal and the other skeksis parted forever. It was sad, though, that they all considered him their enemy and traitor… because he joined her and her kind, along the way.

But she was glad things are as now. Glad he was here, with her. Her wild hunter.

“Tell me… you think we could place some glistening crystals in the cave?”

His eyes lighted up.

“You feel inspired by skekZok?”

“No… yes… partially. I want to celebrate the solstice with you. You said yourself that the gods live here. If we could talk to them, even without their reply… I think it would be… good.”

skekMal nodded slowly, his eyes still burning.

“Yes.”

“I think I was little inspired by this tale” she added.

He grinned at her, voraciously, sending her a fiery gaze.

“But no chants. And no sacrifices.”

Ariya leaned forth and kissed him in the beak.

“No chants. And no sacrifices, unless we eat it later.”

He licked his beak.

“That kind of sacrifice I can agree on.”

The woods embraced them in a winter cocoon, and soon, crystals lighted their cave, a lonely place where two bound creatures were living as one – two sworn enemies turned into lovers, gelfling and a skeksis, joined in body and soul, joined before moon and stars.

But after some time…

“Mal…”

“Mhm…”

“It’s colder than usually.”

“Come here, into my furs.”

“Ah yes. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

“You tease.”

“As always.”

“Press harder.”

A chuckle.

“As you wish.”

skekSo was laying sprawled on the warm cushions, while skekMal’s skilled hands were massaging his body.

It was Hunter’s idea. He wanted to check how well his new herbal concoctions will work. There was a certain ripple of a stone in the pond, as skekSo suspected that the oils are at least partially influenced by skekMal’s urru counterpart. But they felt good, oh so good on his skin and Hunter’s talons were bringing so much bliss to his muscles, that the Emperor could ignore it and enjoy being pampered like a soft fizzgig in a wealthy vapran household.

His feathers already glistened with balms and he felt deliciously soaked with scents.

There were no words between them, only a dance of raw and strong hands on skekSo’s skin and body. He was squeezed in places he didn’t even know he needed to be squeezed. skekMal for sure knew how to bring pleasure to his hungry senses.

skekSo breathed in the smell of fresh tree sap and herbs and his mind started to circle into much different areas of interest. skekMal’s scent was also potent. He always felt like soil and leather – now, he could also place blood. skekMal had to hunt something before he met with him – that idea was tempting, very tempting.

When skekMal’s hands brushed his slit, stayed there for a brief moment and then moved to safer regions, skekSo could feel as core-deep need enters his spine and plays on his nerves like on a harp.

“I think I can say I fulfilled your wish, your highness” skekSo heard a raspy voice. skekMal didn’t venture into his nether parts anymore, a tease, a cruel tease, but the Emperor knew that his hands will return there. skekMal wouldn’t be himself, if he passed a chance of pleasure. Not when skekSo, very bare and very bothered, was laying under him, completely at his whim.

“Mmhh…”

“You probably remember when you asked me to find a gelfling assistant.”

Gelfling! A last thing skekSo wanted to think about right now, were gelfling.

“Yes, skekMal” he exhaled, slowly realizing that skekMal’s fingers again circles in right places. Oh yes. Oh yes, for Thra’s sake. But please without gelfling.

skekMal chuckled darkly. skekSo knew the Hunter reads in him like in an open book, but as long as his talons were there, just there, massaging him with assist of those cursed oils, he was in gracious mood.

As long as your words fill with lust soon, I will appease your need to share these… mundane things.

“What clan he is?” he murmured into pillow, his body pressing tighter into skekMal’s hand.

“She.”

skekSo rised his head.

“She?”

“It’s a woman. Stonewood. I assume the name is unimportant. She is a huntress, so at least I don’t need to start from the beginning.”

A woman. Well, that was insignificant. skekMal never seemed interested in either men or women from among the gelfling. Yes, he used to party with them, he used to drink and get stoned with them. Mostly with Dousan. That was a thing skekSo never understood. Yet he preferred sekkMal as an unknown.

Preferred him coming to him like a ghost, like an apparition, and taking him like a wild beast, whispering things into his ear.

What he was doing with lesser beings was… not important. Completely not important.

It could be a man. It could be a woman. Completely unimportant, just as the name of this poor creature.

“What is her name?” he was surprised these words left his beak.

“Mraya. Not exceptional huntress. Needs much training” skekMal squeezed something budding between skekSo’s legs and the Emperor made a not very dignified sound. “You like it, don’t you, your majesty? So wet. And so ready. You are perfect when you surrender to me like that.”

skekSo shivered.

And nodded vigorously, silently begging him to keep talking.

skekMal possessed a very specific vocabulary, debauched to the raw bone, spoken in this dangerous, wild  tone of his.

And when the Hunter told him what he will do to him, all thoughts about Mraya the Stonewood huntress ran from skekSo’s head.

It’s good to be alive. It’s good to have skekMal here, pressing him into the pillows, flattening him against his hard stomach.

It’s good to be skekSo.

skekEkt: The crawlies infest my room so much lately! So many of them enters my bed and tip-toes over my robes!

skekSil: *smiling sneakily* Yes, hmm-hmm, they are indeed pests. Let’s call the Hunter, yes, he kills them all~

skekEkt: *turning a bit pale* Ah— no, the crawlies are such a nice– eh— creatures. They are not even that numerous! The castle always was full of them, either way…

the forest breathes with crimson dread
branches scratch over, the darkness weeps
the scent of prey haunts like an apparition
the blood runs faster; essence of life storms my veins
the slain ones run with me, wailing ghost of fallen ones
nothing can slow down the wild red river
nothing can stop the bloodied talons of the night

it’s time to hunt again