Little Fang

"Oh. I suppose that'd be frustrating, if you had someone you wanted."

Inny smiled and nodded, "Sometimes. Most times I just try and make sure I don't get pregnant and everyone pretends not to notice the ratata slipping out my door."

"So, there's trade? Other ratata come here?"

The woman held up a hand, "Yes, but I was making a point, human. Maly Kiel has the right to choose her life partner. And it is for life. What is that weird thing you have? The division. Relationship forgotten."

"Divorce?"

Inny nodded, "That's it. We don't have it. Once we do the ceremony, once Maly Kiel has taken her life partner, that is it. She will always have him, and she will follow him if he leaves. If he rejects her, she will sleep outside his door. He can beat her, try and kill her, and she will continue to follow. It is our way."

"That sounds... Like a responsibility. And a choice that cannot be made lightly." Cohen said, feeling sympathy as he imagined just how many rattan women had been treated like shit by others.

Inny Kiel smiled tightly at him, "She chose you."

"What now?"

The woman laughed at his completely confused expression and pointed a thumb to outside, "We're preparing the ceremony. She caught your scent on the air, and told us. She chose you."

"She chose me before she met me!" He exclaimed, "And... Don't I get a say in this? I'm a worthless piece of crap. I'm not even rattan!"

"She chose you." Inny shrugged again.

Maly Kiel looked up from the tea she was brewing, "Wazne jest blisko."

"What does that mean?" Cohen said with pain.

Inny laughed, "It means that she chose you. That no matter where you go, or how far you go, she will always be able to find you, again. That she will always be there for you. She will defend you until the end of her days."

"I came here to die!" His patience snapped.

Both rattan women just shrugged.

"Gods... Why? Why me?" He shook his head.

Inny glared at the other, "Yes. Why this spierdolic thing?"

Maly Kiel answered by sticking out her tongue, and then she made Cohen scream in agony by pouring the boiling tea directly over his wound. His eyes watered and he curled his hands into fists around the mat.

He passed out.

---

"Wake up!"

"Green Goddess, woman!" Cohen groaned, "Were you a banshee in your previous life?"

Maly giggled, and he leaned up on his elbows. Spying her hanging from the roof by the crook of her tail as she examined a very tattered looking book. She looked down at him, "Time soon. Need get ready."

"You're determined to marry me, aren't you?" He asked in confusion. "I just... Why me? Please. Try."

She dropped lightly to the floor, and sat down beside him. Her tail went around him, and she pulled his arm around her shoulders. Then she reopened her book so that he could see it.

It was a child's book. On one side it had rattan words, and on the other it had a human equivalent.

However, Cohen was confused why it would exist.

Books like this were generally only made for the children of lords. It was too expensive to make and bind each copy. Ratata didn't have enough gold to compensate for it, and no lord's child needed to speak to his lowest slaves.

An adult human might need to learn, but not a child.

The book included drawings as well. Incredibly detailed scenes depicting the word in question. Hundreds of hours had gone into making this fragile document, and the worth of it was probably more than anything that Cohen had seen in person before.

Maly traced her finger over the human word slowly, "Lll... Oooo. Vvv."

"Love." Cohen said quietly, and looked at the depicted wedding ceremony. There were elements that were familiar to him. The exchange of bracelets of gold and silver. The bride wearing a crown of flowers.

Others were new. The groom was wearing a strange black and white outfit, and no ceremonial sword, whilst he was flanked by two who were armed. The bride and groom weren't standing in front of a priest, but were circled by the entire village.

"Maly Kiel." She pointed to the rattan bride, and then she pointed to the human groom, "Cohen Rataraed."

He was shocked by the interspecies marriage, even in a book marrying the two languages. The details made him feel that this wasn't just artistic license, but something that the illustrator had witnessed.

"How did you know my name was Cohen, when you met me?" He asked her cautiously.

She blinked and shrugged.

"Humans generally only have one name, or the males do. Women take their husband or master's name." He frowned, "What does... Rataraed mean?"

"Cohen Rataraed." She said firmly with a nod.

About as useful as asking what her own name was. "Where's Inny when you need her?"

"Hunt bestia." Maly said vaguely, lovingly touching the illustration in front of her. She turned her head to him, bottom lip quivering, "Understand?"

"You saw this, and wanted it?"

She smiled sadly, "Not understand. Maly Kiel. Cohen Rataraed. It is. It must. It will. It was."

Right as he was going to try and prompt her for more, Inny Kiel staggered in, covered head to toe in ash and blood. The woman dropped face-first onto the floor with a groan of exhaustion.

Maly hissed and tossed a cloth at her, before jumping up to the roof and putting away her precious book.

Inny tiredly managed to grab the cloth, but nothing more.

He shrugged and dragged the water basin over to her side. Taking the cloth from her grip and began to wipe away some of the grime. "Rough day?"

Both women squeaked at him.

Cohen frowned, "What did I do?"

The cloth was snatched from his hand by Maly, who was shaking in utter rage. She chattered her teeth at him, and then he felt her tail slap his face. His ears were still ringing when she turned away from him with a huff and began to clean Inny.

"Ow. Seriously. I was just trying to help."

Inny groaned, "Stupid... Human... Only life partner or clan can do that. You... Just said you wanted to breed me."

"Oh shit." He said in surprise, "I'm sorry."

"Tell her that. You just violated her trust." Inny rolled over tiredly as a furious Maly Kiel scrubbed unkindly at her hair.

He supposed, he had just asked to fuck his fiance's sister, right in front of her. Not exactly a recoverable social mistake, almost universally. Though, he'd never asked to have a fiance.

He was exiled from the human empire five years ago.

Five years in the wastes had convinced him that it was better to die than to try and make it by on his own. It hadn't removed a single shred of his guilt or shame from why he had been exiled.

"Maly... I know you chose me... But you shouldn't have." Cohen whispered tiredly, "I'm a kinslayer. That's why I'm here."

"Kyneslay?" She glared at him, still furious at him, but not understanding the word.

"Kinslayer." He repeated, "It means I... Killed my clan. My family."

Inny Kiel sat up and shoved the other ratata aside, "What did you just say?"

"I burned down my family home. With them locked inside it." Cohen said in regret, "I was justly convicted. Sentenced to roam the wastes until I died. I told you, I'm a piece of crap."

"You skurwysyn bestia." Inny snarled, "I should kill you!"

Maly's hands wrapped around Inny's throat as she shoved her to the ground. Her pink eyes becoming expressionless as she began to squeeze. Cohen grabbed the small ratata, wincing in pain as he yanked her off.

Maly screamed in frustration, and snarled at the other.

Inny coughed weakly, rubbing her throat. She glared up, "You heard him! He killed his clan!"

"Wazne jest blisko! Kurwiszon jestem na kurwie!" Maly screamed, flailing as she tried to break free of his grip to attack the other ratata.

"Stop it." Cohen growled.

Maly went limp.

He lowered her back to the ground slowly, "Obviously you've made your choice, Maly. You've chosen me, and that is it. But I won't have you become a kinslayer for my sake. Inny is right. I deserve death."

Inny Kiel rubbed her throat, "You humans always care about reasons. Think reasons make things less. What was yours?"

"My excuse makes it worse." Cohen held his side as he sat down again, "I was stealing my father's lands and titles."

Maly Kiel crossed her arms, and snarled at her spare, "Cohen Rataraed."

"No." Inny's eyes widened, "That's what this is? No! He's not even halfway to being Rataraed!"

Cohen sighed, "I appreciate you using human in front of me, so I can understand, but what does Rataraed mean?"

Inny shook her head, "First, that's not why. Maly Kiel made it law. All the clan must speak both rattan and human. She is the will of the clan, apart from me. I don't think you really get that, yet. Pretend there's a fork in the road. Most of the clan want to go left. Maly Kiel points to the middle. They will all, immediately, dig a new path. Even if it kills them."

"She's more than even the emperor." He said in surprise.

Inny nodded gravely, "She can't break the law. She is the law. She is the spirit of the clan. We exist because she does. Secondly... Rataraed... Means the spirit of the ratata."

"Like... Maly?"

The woman shook her head, "Every clan has Maly Kiel and Inny Kiel. It is our way. But the Rataraed... They are the spirit of all ratata. Maly Kiel is saying that you, of all the stinking things, are our destiny."

Maly turned to him, smiling with tears in her eyes, "Maly Kiel. Cohen Rataraed. It is. It must. It will. It was."

"She thinks that I... Am some... King of ratkind?"

Inny laughed, "If you are Rataraed, then we become your kind. You want us to wear less clothing, all rattan women wear less. You want to go to war, and the ratata dream of fighting. They wake up and start forging weapons and training soldiers. You don't need to say anything. You simply are."

Maly sat down beside him, wrapping her tail around him and hugging his side, "Important."

"Holy shit." Cohen sucked in his breath, crushed by a responsibility it didn't look like he was going to get out of.

Inny Kiel glared at him, "Problem is... She's right."

"Come again?"

The ratata winced, and went back to bathing, "I... When you told us to stop, human... When you pulled us apart... I felt it before you did it. I felt your will bending me. Maly could have killed me. She's a thousand times stronger than you, but you picked her up."

"Shit." Cohen breathed, not sure he believed it.

Maly flicked his forehead, "Cohen Rataraed. Know it, and it is. Hate it, and it isn't."

If he didn't believe that he was their Rataraed, then his will would make it so that he wasn't. A self-fulfilling belief. He was somehow tied to these people. A human, with the power to control all ratata.

He could become rich.

He could rival the emperor, building armies of thousands. No need for slavery when his aspirations were the hopes and dreams of the people forced to bend to him.

He felt sick.

"What I want... Is to live quietly. Forgotten. Far away from temptation." Cohen whispered.

Inny laughed bitterly, "Well, then I guess that's going to happen. Can't get much more forgotten than the wastes."

"The... Ceremony." Cohen tried to distract himself, "How does it work?"

Maly squeaked and hugged him tighter, "You chose!"

"I... I don't want to hurt you. You chose me. Doesn't seem like much of a choice. You don't seem to listen to my will on this one." He sighed.

She smiled and snuggled tightly into him.

Inny Kiel finished bathing and made her way over to the fire, "You swear to her, to be hers. She does the same. The clan welcomes you in. We feast. We continue feasting, and you breed her."

"Breed?" He said nervously, "Not sure I'm ready for kids."

"Clan, human. Raised by the clan. No mothers or fathers." Inny Kiel said tiredly, "Yes, you breed her. If you don't, she'll either cry or try and breed with you until it happens. Rejecting a bride on her day. You are the worst of your kind."

"I might well be." He said bitterly.

Maly grabbed a cup from nearby. He didn't see her throw it, but he heard the sickening crack, and saw Inny Kiel drop unmoving to the ground.

He stared in horror, "Inny! Maly! Did you just kill her!?"

The ratata shrugged, uncaring.

Inny groaned, "Not... Not dead. Dearst that hurts... I... I'm going to bed."

The rattan woman crawled over to another mat by the fire, curling up and going still. It took Cohen a very long time to tell if she was still breathing. When he finally confirmed that she was, he turned his gaze back to find the thrown cup.

The tin object wasn't just flattened, but shaped to the convex of a skull.

"Maly... I don't like it when you hurt her. Not for looking down on me."

"Tss." She made a sound of irritation.

Cohen sighed, "If you want me to stay by your side, then you need to let her have her own opinion. You hurt me, by lashing out."

Maly Kiel, for the first time since he'd met the incredible woman, burst into tears. She let go of him, curling into a ball and began to rock back and forth. Her tail went into her mouth and she bit down on it as she wept.

He reached for her, and she leaned away, biting down harder.

"Inny, what do I do?"

The woman moaned and rolled over, blearily opening one eye, "Eugh! Uh... Kiss her. She thinks you've chosen not her. She's in shock. And now, let me die or sleep."

"Please don't die."

"I'm rattan, human. Losing a limb is a mild inconvenience. Bump to the head won't do much." Inny gave a small laugh, and then rolled back over. "Kiss her."

How was he supposed to kiss her when she didn't let him touch her?

And that was just the practicality. Kissing someone who was in shock felt like a massive trust violation. Yet, he couldn't exactly sit back and watch her bite off her tail in front of him.

She had hunted him down, saved his life, and brought him home.

He had to do something for her.

As Cohen reached for her, Maly fell backwards, biting down harder and squealing as she cried. His hands landed either side of her head and he planted a brief peck on her nose.

The pink eyes froze up, staring up at him.

Her jaw went slack and the tail slipped from her mouth. She let out a small whine and placed a hand against his bare chest, above the bandage. Maly smiled nervously up at him, "Important?"

"Dearst! If you two start breeding, I'm going to throw up." Inny complained.

"Leaving then!" Maly snarled over at her roommate before looking back at him, all innocent eyed. "Important?"

Cohen hesitated, "Are you going to hurt yourself if I turn you down, again? I don't hate you, Maly. I really don't. Myself, another story. And this feels like taking advantage of you."

"What I want." She said stubbornly and he felt her tail, complete with new teeth marks, go around his waist.

Inny sat up, holding her head, "Can't you even wait until after the ceremony, Maly Kiel."

She giggled and blushed, "Want both times."

Inny rolled her eyes, "He's human. He doesn't have rattan stamina. Twice a day is almost their limit. Giving him half an hour isn't enough time to recover. Not to mention he's injured."

"Leaving or watching!?" Maly snapped at her.

Cohen felt the end of the tail slip into the front of his pants and curl around his member. Gently massaging him as Maly smiled at him innocently. He still wasn't sure about any of this, but she was.

Inny slumped back onto the bed, "Too tired to argue. Try not to make too much of a mess."

He went to lean away, and her arms went behind his neck. She picked herself off the floor as she pulled herself up into him and placed her lips on his. He could feel her quivering, equal parts scared and excited.

As she kissed him, he realised that since she'd first appeared, he had completely trusted her. Maly had slipped into his life like a missing puzzle piece. She had always belonged there.

He couldn't see a world without her by his side, even if he did leave this place.

"Aren't we going to get in trouble for this?" He whispered to her, beginning to harden under her tail's playful ministrations.

"Mmm." She giggled, and then shrugged, "Maly Kiel."

He kissed her back, pushing his tongue into her mouth.

Her tongue curled around either side of his, wrapping around it smoothly as she continued to pull at him, none of her touching the ground. Still exhausted, Cohen leaned lower, trying to take her weight of him, but she just pulled in tighter.

He gave in and sat up all the way. Maly pushed him down flat by his shoulders, whilst continuing to almost give a sexual experience to his tongue with hers. Her tail was also getting more into it, rubbing over his head and spreading his precum over his member.

The determined ratata reached down and drew her top up, slipping her arms out of it. She refused to break the kiss to fully pull it off. Leaving it around her neck as she grabbed his hands and pulled them up to feel her twin breasts.

Those, he hadn't paid nearly enough attention to. He'd expected them to be small, like the rest of her, but they felt almost average sized for a human. She had to be well-proportioned for her kind.

"You're actually screwing him." Inny complained.

"Leave." Maly gasped breathlessly, breaking the kiss and throwing aside her top before kissing him again. Sucking at his tongue excitedly. He could feel the warmth of her womanhood through her pants.

She removed his belt smoothly, and he lifted his hips so that she could awkwardly shuffle them down. Exposing his groin to the warm heat of the fire nearby. He couldn't help but notice Inny still hadn't gone anywhere.

Was she really planning to watch?

Maly barely loosened her grip on him, so that she could stand a little and pull her own pants down.

She was now wearing not a scrap whilst his pants were around his ankles. He had a momentary flash of guilt and doubt. He still wasn't sure about this, the responsibility, and there was no taking it back.

"Fuck!" He exclaimed as the overwhelming tightness of her channel grabbed him. Like forcing a tauran through the eye of a needle. It really didn't feel like he should fit, he could feel her depths straining as they stretched to accommodate him.

Maly whimpered as she rocked her hips, slowly working her way down him. She gasped into the air, "M-more. All. Make fit."

"Gentle." He struggled to speak, "Don't... Hurt yourself... Fuck."

She giggled, grinning at him with a flushed face, "Can't. Ratata."

"By the dark gods!" Inny gave an awed whisper, "Pierdolniety. How are you fitting that inside you, Maly?"

She smiled proudly as Cohen felt himself bottoming out inside the ratata. She gave an awe-filled sigh. "Jealous."

"No shit."

"Inny Kiel is Inny Kiel. Maly Kiel is Maly Kiel." She gave a little groan, and kissed Cohen briefly, "Napierdalac. I'm ready."

With that, she braced herself on his chest and began to ever so gently rise and fall on him. Her quivering walls massaging every bit of him as he felt like he'd been transported to another wall.

He couldn't even care if Inny really was watching.

Nobody would be capable of thought, not with this wrapped around their cock. The lubrication from her snatch was generous, but it wasn't quite enough. The simple fact was that she was small and tight.

"Llllll..." She tried to sound out the unfamiliar word.

He grunted beneath her, "Love."

"I love you." Maly Kiel moaned.

Cohen felt as if they'd barely begun when the familiar churning feeling hit home. He grunted, "Gods, Maly. I'm close. Shit. Too tight."

"More." She demanded, "Give me all. Breed me, Cohen Rataraed. Breed deep."

Inny sucked in her breath.

Maly's thighs pressed in around his legs, as her walls seemed to try and close and tighten around him even more. She moaned and groaned as she continued to ride him, thrusting him determinedly into her.

"I love you." She murmured, shuddering and gasping, "I need you."