A Rare Breed

PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here

Climbing along the roofs, balconies, and elevated avenues of once architectural marvels, he followed the faint trail of insectoid pheromones, masked though they were by the salty air. Tynian passed under a foot path archway that was decorated with a fading, mildew-covered fresco of some forgotten sea deity. A click sounded from behind him in the cool shadows.

Rather than being aimed between his eyes, a compact bowgun was now sighted for the instant-kill spot at the base of his skull. Paying no heed to the danger, Tynian turned and smiled. The bowgun was held by a three-fingered hand, covered in segmented lavender carapace, that was attached to an arm extending from inside a cloak of iridescent fabric. Nothing was visible within the hood. He glanced down and saw that a corner of the cloak had been torn away.

"Kree'tzee--" he began, but no other words were allowed out of his mouth. The insectoid's other tripod hand shot out of her cloak and clamped down on his muzzle. Gone was the playful strength with which she once cupped his manhood, replaced by an angry grip that caused the muscles of his jaw to creak.

"You foolish pup!" she hissed. A rapid chitter laced her sandy voice and he now recognized it as a vocalization of her annoyance. "I once complimented you for your intelligence, but it appears you have been thinking with the wrong head!"

The canine tried to placate her, but her ferocity cowed him beyond reply. Kree'tzee roughly pushed him into an unseen alcove, out of sight. She kept her bowgun at the ready and released him, making it clear he would dead if he spoke out of turn.

"I shall explain myself but once, so that you may better appreciate my frustration and learn to avoid exacerbating my dilemma. You deduced correctly that I had killed someone that day. I am a bounty hunter and I took out a contract on a certain criminal chieftain. The three hyena's from whom you learned my whereabouts are the chieftain's personal bodyguards seeking revenge against me. They are wary trackers and knew that following me blindly would be to step into my trap, so they waited for the right opportunity; namely, you! They have most assuredly shadowed you to this place and used you to betray my exact location. We are now in their trap!"

Tynian idly rubbed his jaw, trying to massage feeling back into it. "I...I had no idea." He leaned against the ivy-covered stones of the alcove wall and hung his head. "I just wanted to see you again. How can I make it up to you?"

"Stay here. Do not interfere again."

When he looked up, she was gone.

=====

The three hyena brothers, though triplets by birth, were only fraternal and aside from those physical traits that were typical of their species, they couldn't be more different. The firstborn was short and rotund, not so much obese as built with layers of muscle that lacked definition. The second born was equally massive, but his musculature was toned and dispersed evenly over a tall frame. The third born was a wiry scamp with neither height nor heft, but an uncanny speed of limb.

What they all shared, bequeathed to them from a vicious beast of a father, was a delight in bloodletting. Each of the three wore a bandolier of deadly weapons, the tools of their craft. Knives for slicing, thrusting, gutting, and throwing. Crossbows, bulkier than the one Kree'tzee favored, fired serrated bolts for a particularly nasty wound. Violating and consuming their victims were fringe benefits in their line of work.

They made for mediocre bodyguards–confirmed by the fact that their last employer was dead–but were excellent merchants in the trade of death. The hyena brothers were tricksters and always found a way to unfairly tip the odds in their favor. It had been the youngest's idea to use Tynian as bait. Kree'tzee was a notorious huntress of unparalleled skill, but even her survival was unlikely with the odds so stacked against her, or so they believed.

Coordinating carefully, the brothers snuck into the dead city of Hasre as unobtrusively as possible in broad daylight. They moved swiftly from ruin to ruin, expertly sweeping clear each crumbling shelter, every place their prey could be hiding.

All except those from above. Kree'tzee observed her competition from her perch around a copper spire that had long since oxidized in the sea breeze.

The insectoid's custom bowgun had greater power and range than those of the hyena brothers, which was paid in the price of massive recoil. Firing with any degree of precision required careful aim. With the wind whistling around her, this position was useless for anything other than reconnaissance. Sensitive antennae waved in the breeze, carefully annotating her prey and the terrain itself. When she learned all that she needed, her tripod hands and matching feet gripped the weathered masonry, lowering herself down to street level.

Not far away, Tynian found himself looking down the business end of a projectile device for the third time in his life. "Well, well, well! Lookee what we got here, fellas!" crowed the youngest of the hyenas. "We got ourselves a regular puppy stud!"

The middle brother bowed to fit under the archway and reached into the alcove, hauling Tynian out into the harsh daylight. "What 'choo doin' round deez parts, puppy?" he demanded in a slurring baritone. "Don' 'choo know this place is dangerush for da young'uns?"

The youngest spoke up again when his eldest brother approached, he alone remaining vigilant. "This puppy's job is done, big bro." His black lips pealed back, revealing yellow crooked fangs, which he licked hungrily. "Can we take 'em?"

"Not until the bitch is dead," the squat hyena ordered. "Your fun can wait."

Tynian watched the exchange as calmly as if he was measuring some spice for a demanding consumer. The hints as to what they planned to do with him caused no outward signs of anxiety. His experience with bartering taught him there was a way out of any sticky situation, verbal or otherwise.

The tallest brother appeared to be ignoring their exchange. He towered over the calm canine, manhandling the bulge in his leather breeches with a devilish leer. The expression froze on his face as a black fletched crossbow bolt pierced his temple. It drove in so deeply that the square-shaped head appeared out the other side of his skull. He collapsed to a two man chorus of disbelief.

The eldest reacted first, mentally calculating the most likely trajectory of the enemy's attack, and fired. He was wrong. It clattered uselessly against the crumbling stones.

Kree'tzee emerged from the shadows of a sun bleached rotunda, previously invisible to the naked eye thanks to the cloak which seemed to bend light around it. She aimed her own bowgun at the stout hyena and fired, but he bravely protected himself from a head shot by sacrificing an arm.

The youngest hyena drew a bead on the insectoid, but before he could fire, Tynian sprang into action. He kicked the wiry beast's legs out from under him, then rolled to his own sandaled paws. In one smooth motion learned in the sometimes dangerous slums of Vafoso, he drew a curved blade from the hyena's bandolier and etched a bloody tattoo across his neck.

Looking back, Tynian saw his beloved standing over the leader like the Angel of Death. The eldest brother had three more bolts in him, one in the hand and one in the shoulder. The fourth that felled him was only indicated by the blood still pouring from a hole in his armpit, where it dug between ribs and pierced his heart.

"I recall instructing you to stay out of my business," Kree'tzee said quietly, her voice barely audible over the cry of sea gulls.

The canine shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't expect thanks, but you're welcome all the same."

The insectoid went about the grim and messy business of reclaiming her bowgun's bolts, thereby concealing the manufacture of her specialized ammunition. "Why did you follow me?"

"Because I love you," Tynian replied simply.

Kree'tzee made an ugly noise and ignored him for the rest of the day. She said nothing when he suggested they hide the bodies, so he bade his temporary captors farewell and left them to whatever carrion birds might inhabit the area. She said nothing when he began to follow her away from the ruins, struggling to catch up as she deftly navigated the western woodlands. She said nothing as they settled down to camp. She said nothing before disappearing from sight.

Tynian built a fire, trusting her to return. She did shortly, carrying two wild coneys, one held tightly in each tripod hand. He turned away to gather some of his own provisions to add to the meal, pulling a pair of yams and smoked apples from his pack. When he turned back to the fire, one of the coneys had been efficiently skinned and set up on a spit by the fire. Only one.

"Are you not eating?" he asked, not expecting to receive an answer.

Kree'tzee took down the hood of her cloak and he saw the sad look in her crimson eyes. "I shall, while you slumber," she confessed at last. "You professed your love for me, but I fear t'would be a most disturbing sight to behold. My people consume our prey alive, injecting it with neurotoxin and drawing from it the blood and still-quivering organs."

The dogboy watched her carefully, though she would not meet his gaze. There was a newfound vulnerability in her which was not otherwise noticeable in the rasp of her sandy voice.

"Please, take your repast," he responded. "I have seen and heard much in the Vafoso Market that would turn the stomachs of lesser folk. You couldn't disgust me if you tried."

The insectoid's mandibles turned up in that approximation of a smile. With a slight nod of her triangular head, she pulled the second coney from the depths of her cloak. It kicked, still alive. True to her word, Kree'tzee's mandibles closed around the small animal, holding it steady. It squealed loudly before going rigid as she delivered the neurotoxin by unseen means. The crunching and slurping which ensued would have made the most iron-willed man go pale. Tynian was merely intrigued and went about preparing and eating his own meal normally.

As the fire began to die down, Tynian moved closer to where Kree'tzee sat and prodded the embers with a stick. As he drew near her, the canine caught a trace of her pheromones again, inhaling the pleasant aroma that resembled a sour rose.

"If you don't mind me asking," he began, "how is it those hyenas gave you so much trouble? I only saw you at work briefly, but it seemed to me they were vastly outclassed."

A deep, sandy huff sounded beside him. "This is the egg-laying season for my people. We have evolved beyond the need for mating, but still produce the courtship pheromones. I undertook this latest assignment, perhaps foolishly, while attempting to suppress my biological needs. Alas, they were able to trace my scent. I had hoped to take refuge in your spice shop in order to mask it while I devised a new strategy."

"So, my animal magnetism had nothing to do with it?" Tynian joked.

Kree'tzee's throat ventricles issued pleased humming. "I apologize for shattering your personal illusion."

A quiet moment passed between them. Just being this close to her again brought to mind the most lavascious of fantasies. His manhood awoke, sliding from its canine sheath under the cover of tanned hide. Much to his enjoyment, the insectoid undulated within her cloak and shed it, letting the iridescent fabric fall from her shoulders to the ground, revealing her magnificent body.

Unexpectedly, she reached down into the lap of the canine sitting beside her and let her tripod hand come to rest on his swelling groin. Her triangular head turned to regard him seriously. This close, in the flickering illumination of the fire, Tynian noticed her eyes were actually multi-faceted, but the shifting outlines of pupils indicated her line of sight. Kree'tzee's antennae hovered around him, analyzing his reaction to her touch. He held his breath, willing with all his being that this wasn't a dream.

"Tynian, do not think me insensitive to your desire. I am truly flattered by your attentions, but you must understand that my people are not like yours. Other than the need to lay our eggs in an available–if not entirely willing–host, we have no contact with furkin in a sexual manner, or even a capacity for it."

The dogboy's hands rose to caress his beloved's thin arms, coming to rest on her shoulders. "Then let my love be the means by which you enter our world," he replied sincerely.

Her grave crimson eyes stared back at him. "You do not understand. This natural armor that protects me is also a natural prison. What little I feel of the outside world is through my antennae and some few other organs." Her sandy voice choked up, growing tight with anguish. "I cannot feel your touch."

The canine moved to kneel between her and laid his head on her shoulder. The whisper of air from the ventricles through which she breathed and spoke tickled his cheek. Tynian's furry fingers lightly caressed them on one side while he began to lay tender kisses against on the other. Kree'tzee gasped sharply, overtaken be these new and exciting sensations.

"Do you feel this?" Tynian asked softly.

His fingers moved to her mandibles and they responded obediently to his touch, opening to him. The interior of her maw resembled a vagina; thick vertical lips puckered with glistening saliva and the stinger with which she injected the neruotoxin extended from the place a clitoris would have been. The juxtaposition was ironic and alluring. He pressed a digit into her alien mouth, eliciting a strengthening in the volume of her hum and aroma of her pheromones.

"And this?"

"Such wonders," the insectoid responded huskily. "I had not thought to attempt contact in such a way..."

If Tynian had forgotten her hand was on his manhood, he remember once her grip tightened to the point of making him yelp with pain. She recoiled, horrified by the thought of what injury she might have inflicted on the first person who had ever loved her. He leaned back and untied the knot in his loincloth, releasing his bruised member in the cool night air. It had grown to its full length some time ago and now stood, addressing Kree'tzee proudly.

"Here's you first lesson in furkin ways, my love," said the canine with a benign smile. "The male organ is resilient, but almost as sensitive as your lovely antennae." He guided her tripod hands, showing her the gentle ways to handle his sex. "It should be treated with care."

"Mmmmmmm! I see now," Kree'tzee said distantly, intent in her study. "It resembles my own egg depositor."

The canine would have urbanely asked to see it had he been in the presence of mind to. The insectoid was a quick learner and as such, he was concentrating so as not to loose his seed prematurely on her exquisite lavender carapace. It was a hopeless battle.

"Y-your mouth..." he murmured. "Take it...take it into your mouth."

She looked up at him sharply, the confusion evident in her multi-faceted eyes, though her efforts did not cease. "You wish me to consume you?!"

Tynian chuckled haltingly. "No, but...you will understand...when you do. Oh! Quickly, please!" he gasped.

With nothing to do but trust her new lover, Kree'tzee lowered her head and allowed the erect member to penetrate her maw. It vanished readily into the moist depths, gripped lovingly by her strong muscles. Tynian shuddered. Though he knew she would not bite or sting, the instinctual fear of sacrificing his manhood multiplied the ecstasy he felt. The insectoid sucked at him with the same tenacity she'd eaten the coney and it broke the seal of her lover's resolve. With a long moan, Tynian came, letting the flow of his seed be suctioned down her throat.

Sitting on his heals, back to the fire, he savored the feeling of Kree'tzee continued ministrations until she realized her second lesson was complete. The salty taste of his cream reminded her favorably of her primary sustenance. She raised her head, seeing the dogboy in a new light. Why she'd ever considered denying him was a mystery.

He leaned forward and she away, inviting him to examine her insectoid body with the detail he long desired. The canine laid his hands upon her, feeling the carapace that was at once both rough and smooth, scored with rippling texture that was polished to an almost mirror sheen. They traced the ridge where a mammals breasts would have been. Laying his head against her chest, he found that even the beating of her three chambered heart was inaudible. His hands ran down to her torso to encircle a waist so narrow that it seemed unable to support her. Her hips flared sharply, allowing room between them for her thorax.

Tynian playfully traced the segments that banded her underside, following them down to the rounded terminus. The short twin feelers that teased him some weeks ago now twitched, relishing his touch. His furry fingers curled up to the reproductive cavity here and pushed inside with a wet squish. He pumped them slowly, causing the insectoid to undulate in rapture. His lover's humming rose to a volume that made his ears itch.

The muscles around Tynian's fingers pushed back and her egg depositor extended from its carapace sheath. Her previous words rang true; it was ridged and veined in the manner of a penis, but lacked the definitive cap and was much thicker for its length than was typical. The orifice at its tip expanded eagerly.

"I wonder if you might repay me in kind?" Kree'tzee inquired timidly.

Her new mate salivated in anticipation. "It would be an honor and a pleasure, my love."

Wrapping the organ with both hands, Tynian paused a moment to appreciate it. The depositor was feminine in function, but masculine by nature. He had bedded hermaphroditic furkin before, but this was a something totally different. He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with her pheromones and in one breath, engulfed the organ voraciously.

The sticky mucous she secreted had a sour and tangy flavor, not at all like the sweet woman's juices he was accustomed to. He swallowed, though it threatened to choke him. His lips were stretched taught and his jaws ached in the effort of holding Kree'tzee's organ in his mouth. There wasn't even enough room for his tongue to lap at her in the method he used on herm-furs.

At last, he could bear it no longer. He released her with an explosive cough, then immediately went back to smothering her depositor with kisses. Tynian's broad tongue stroked her length and slipped inside her muscular orifice. His fingers squeezed and pinched, tickling the pulsing veins. Her organ grew hot and swelled suddenly. The dogboy sought to quicken her climax and employed every debauched trick he could think of.

Kree'tzee reacted violently, pushing her lover away and covering herself. "No! It comes!"

Panic seized Tynian's heart. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"My egg!" the insectoid wailed. Pain, both physical and emotional, laced her raspy voice. "I have delayed the laying too long. My people dwindle in numbers. I produce but one a season and every child is precious."

The canine took her hands, sharing his determination with her. "Lay it in me," he instructed.

"You are male!" Kree'tzee stated incredulously. "You have no womb in which to carry my egg."

"But I have another warm cavity that may suffice," he said with a confident grin. "You said yourself that hosts were not always willing. Have you never had need to impregnate one who is not female?"

The insectoid was hesitant to answer, but knew that to lie would be counterproductive in this emergency. "Yes. T'was a beast of burden that bore my child so many season ago." She broke off as the pain of delay increased.

"It's not as though you have another choice! I will take your egg and care for the child with all my heart."