Anup/sourang 13 (Patreon)

After the last post, everyone was all "And then they have sex, right?"

Sheesh! Grow up, guys! /eyeroll

——— 

Rrrr held the high priest’s hips in a vice-like grip, not letting him pull away. The anup groaned a fairly repulsive noise, “Hrngh!” and the sourang waited a few more moments before pulling away, but still he held Arnalruk motionless. “Don… Please don’t… Don’t…” he sputtered as his body shook with yet another spasm.

Rrrr sighed and waited until the high priest had once again regained his power of speech. “I thought you wanted this,” said the sourang, his voice cool and smooth. “Wanted this ‘more than anything else in the galaxy’.” He watched the anup’s belly move in and out as Arnalruk drew one huge gasping breath after another.

“I do!” he groaned. His voice grew quieter, the weariness creeping in. “I do. I just need … some rest.”

Rrrr dunked a cloth in the water bowl sitting beside the bed and spent a moment wiping off his muzzle. He looked up. The priest was still obeying him—for the most part. His palms were still flat against the stone wall, but his elbows were starting to sag as he leaned farther and farther forward. Rrrr considered stopping him, but then relented, ducking his head down slightly so the anup could support his cheek against the wall, his chin on the back of his wrist.

“Okay, fine,” sighed Rrrr, “you can rest for a moment.”

“Thank you! Thank you! Oh, thank you so much!” groaned the anup, but as he tried to lift his palms, the sourang snapped at him.

“I did not say you could move.”

Arnalruk whined but did as he was told.

“You can rest against the wall while I clean you up.” The anup nodded with closed eyes and Rrrr dunked the cloth once more. He squeezed out some of the excess and started scrubbing at the priest’s black belly fur, trying to clean away the mess before it had a chance to get crusty.

Arnalruk continued to pant hard, gasping occasionally when Rrrr got too personal with the cloth. When he was finished, he tossed the rag back in the bowl, pursed his lips, and blew cool air on the priest’s wet skin and fur. He gasped again, almost a sob.

“Are you not enjoying this?” asked Rrrr.

Still panting, the priest’s muscles relaxed some. “I am. Of course, I am. I’m just … sore. And I don’t see how this helps me reach Total Awe.” His voice grew quieter still, “And I’m so tired—”

“Because what was stopping you before was thinking about all your responsibilities,” said the sourang. “What you needed was a break from all of them, real physical contact, a feeling of safety and security, and once your body is too tired to keep fighting it, you will be able to feel spiritual again.”

“And you’re certain about this?” Arnalruk sounded desperate, needful, anything but convinced.

“Absolutely.”

Rrrr raised a paw to touch the priest once more, and Arnalruk pulled away. He kept his palms on the wall as he’d been instructed, but he moved his hips back to open up more space between the two. “Please don’t,” he begged. “I can’t do it again. I need some rest.”

The sourang lowered his paw and waited a moment. “Are you certain about that?”

“Yes, absolutely certain,” said the priest. “I’ve never been so tired in my life.”

“Very well,” said Rrrr. “We can stop.”

“Oh, thank you!” groaned the priest. He buckled at the knees and crashed down onto the bed like a marionette with its strings cut.

“No, no, no!” said Rrrr. “I didn’t say sleep. You wanted to meditate.”

Arnalruk groaned and after a moment’s hesitation, he crawled from the bed to his prayer mat. With no small effort, he pulled himself upright, crossed his legs, and rested his wrists on his thighs. His ears hung low in misery.

“No, not like that,” said the sourang. He grabbed a pillow from the bed and tossed it at the edge of the mat, so it leaned against the wall. Then Rrrr snatched a bottle from one of the high priest’s shelves and took a seat, inserting himself between the anup and the wall. He slouched against the pillow, then patted his stomach. “Lay back against me.”

Arnalruk hesitated again, then did as instructed.

Rrrr pulled the cork from the bottle and handed it to the priest. “Drink some.”

The priest shook his head. “That’s ceremonial. It’s for—”

“This is my ceremony,” interrupted Rrrr. “Drink some.”

Arnalruk sighed. He put the bottle to his lips and took a couple gulps. “Okay?”

Rrrr sniffed at the wine. It smelled weak—precisely the sort of beverage he’d come to expect from religious worlds. “A little more.”

The anup chugged a few more glugs then shoved the cork home, wiped his lips, and set the bottle aside. “Satisfied?”

“Not until you show me what this Total Awe thing looks like,” said the sourang. He wrapped his arms and tail around the smaller anup and squeezed him with his thighs. Then he curved his long neck forward until his chin rested against his arms, trapping the priest in a warm cocoon of a hug.

Rrrr waited for the anup’s muscles to relax. “Now, close your eyes and imagine the most inspiring thing you have ever seen, and let it happen. You have nowhere to be for days and nothing else to worry about.”

# # #

Arnalruk gasped and toppled forward, barely stopping his fall before striking his head.

“Hey, hey, hey!” said Rrrr as he scrambled out of the bed, kicking the covers this way and that. He scooped the anup up in his arms and lifted him into the air, setting him gently down into the bed. Then, taking a seat beside him, he brushed his pads gently across the priest’s forehead, smoothing back the short fur. “Are you all right? I was getting pretty worried. Did you… Were you in Awe?”

“I was!” gasped the priest. He was so elated, he was flying—above the clouds and to the stars themselves! He couldn’t recall feeling so happy. “You did it!”

“You did it,” whispered Rrrr. He fanned his whiskers, staring at the anup’s face for a long moment before he finally turned away. He lifted a cup of water to the priest’s lips and the anup took a sip. “All of it,” he said, not letting him pull away until the glass had been drained.

Rrrr set the cup aside, then reaching over, he rummaged through some empty bowls, searching for one that hadn’t been licked clean. “Do you think you could eat a little?” he asked.

“Eat? Huh?” mumbled the anup, confused at why the acolytes could have brought so many bowls. Had Rrrr left while he was mediating and requested the food? Arnalruk’s stomach growled and he suddenly acknowledged the hollowness in his gut. “Whu— How long…?”

Rrrr shrugged. He grabbed a bowl and turned back, offering it to the priest. “I do not know. Days? Your attendants are getting worried. They haven’t knocked, but I have heard them listening at the door. I think they are afraid I have murdered you.”

“Days?” The anup stared in disbelief then let his head fall back against the pillow, ignoring the bowl that balanced on his chest. “Why? Why did you…?”

“Is that not normal?” whispered Rrrr. His whiskers drooped, then he scooped furiously at a bit of cold porridge with a spoon. “I am sorry. I thought you needed that. You seemed so desperate for it.”

Arnalruk stared at the ceiling, unblinking. When he had been a young acolyte, the priests would never allow him to drift for long. If he could sneak a whole hour Total Awe between his responsibilities, it would launch his mood into orbit for a week.

Any anup could attain Awe, but over generations, the Orthodoxy had linked the experience to religion. Each time they managed it; it drew the community all that much closer.

Arnalruk thought back, wondering how long he had ever drifted in Total Awe before. An hour and a half? Two? His peak had to have been before he became an acolyte, laying in his bed in wonder when he should have been sleeping.

And now this? This was life altering. He felt reborn. After years of struggling, this incredible stranger had not only helped him find Awe once more, but he had let him drift for who knows how long?

He finally felt like his old self again. No, better! He felt complete.

The sourang fanned his whiskers once more. “It would mean a lot to me if you would try to eat and get some sleep. You should probably reassure whoever is outside the door that you are still alive.” He caressed the anup’s cheek with his fingertips, then offered him the spoon once more. “I am sure they are growing impatient with decisions for you to make. And I will need to go—”

“What? No! Don’t go.” The high priest sat up so suddenly that the bowl slipped off his chest and shattered on the stone tiles, but Arnalruk didn’t even notice. “We have so much to talk about.”

Rrrr gently pushed the anup back down. He grabbed the blanket and draped it over the priest’s chest. “Not really…” he whispered. “You needed some help, and I helped you. That is really all there is.”

“What? No!” shouted the high priest, sitting up once more. “Wh-what if I can’t do it again without your help? I-I need your guidance. Like you said, I need personal contact! No one else on this world can provide that for me but you. Everyone else has to maintain their distance…”

Rrrr turned away and for a long while, he stroked his chin, saying nothing. Without turning back, he whispered, “Well, there is a way…”

Arnalruk grabbed the sourang by his slender shoulders and shook him. “There is? What?”

“Well, there is a way to inoculate a small number of anup against Collapse,” explained Rrrr. “If you were to pick those individuals carefully, I suspect that they would be endlessly grateful to you. They would be so happy that they could finally touch and be touched safely. What I have done for you was not magic. Any of them could help you out in the same sort of way.”

“What?” gasped the priest. “You have a … cure for collapse?”

“I have a few doses only,” explained the sourang. “And before you ask, no, I cannot make more.”

The anup felt light-headed. A cure for Collapse! Was that truly possible? The ambassador had assured him that it could be cured, but that a vaccine could take several generations to develop. “If you have a cure, give it to me, please!” begged the priest. “I can bring it to the ambassador, and perhaps he can replicate—”

Rrrr shook his head. “Absolutely not. If you want what I have, then it has to remain a secret. You and a select group of individuals you trust completely, or no one.”

Arnalruk stared at the sourang, feeling divided. Between the duty he felt for his people and the demands of his friend, what should he do? And if Rrrr refused to give it to him, would he spend the rest of his life without ever feeling Awe again? That was a thought he couldn’t bear!

He swallowed. If being a high priest had taught him anything, it was how to make hard decisions. “Very well, my friend. I want it. I’ll find us a small group of anup we can trust.”

Rrrr nodded, then he raised a single finger. “Well, there is actually one last thing we do need to discuss.”

Arnalruk’s heart beat hard inside his chest. “There is?”

“Well, we have already established your secret heart’s desire and how I helped you get it,” said the sourang.

“We did,” agreed the anup.

“So, now we should probably talk about my heart’s secret desire, and how you can get it for me.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_b_6HVH_VHbV_W9DWFxOmYI3wKDZuGmdtrhIeNekX1c/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?