Sacred Ground, ch. 1 (Patreon)

“I told you we shouldnt’a come out here, man!”  Blake’s panicked cry was punctuated by deep, heaving breaths.  The young hunter’s clothes were soaked with sweat and mud and all manner of debris that he’d picked up from the forest floor during the many tumbles he’d taken on his desperate flight.  His bare, burly arms stung from the myriad scrapes and cuts as he ricocheted off trees and burst through thick patches of thorns and branches.  He could feel the cool, humid air seeping into the rips and tears in his shredded pants, but he was far too scared to feel any embarrassment.  

“Just...fucking...run!”  Clay gasped, pulling a few steps ahead of his beefier friend.  The lean brunette’s wiry frame was having an easier time navigating the obstacles as he deftly avoided low hanging branches and leapt gracefully over the fallen trees barring their way.  “We’re almost...to the...pickup...” 

Blake resisted the urge to look back over a broad shoulder at the loud crashing that was pursuing them through the darkening woods.  “It’s getting closer!”  The raven-haired bruiser couldn’t keep the shrill note of terror from his usually deep voice.  He’d only caught a brief glimpse of the monstrous, towering thing that chased them, no more than a partial outline through the dense trees, and that was already more than he ever wanted to see.  

They’d been warned not to hunt in this part of the forest, but despite Blake’s protests Clay had managed to talk him into going with him.  He kept talking about how thick the game was in those secluded acres, and how there wasn’t really any such thing as “sacred ground” anymore.  And even if there was, it wasn’t sacred to them, he’d argued.  Blake still wasn’t convinced it was something they should mess with, but after Kyle and Andy bailed he didn’t want to look like a pussy.  So while their two friends stayed back in the safety of their small cabin, he and Clay drove down the winding dirt roads deeper into the forest until they saw the carved tree stump that told them they’d reached their destination.  Blake had no idea what the squat idol was supposed to represent when they’d passed it the first time.  Now he knew all too well.  

“I see it!  I see the truck!”  Clay looked back over his shoulder, hesitating.  

“Go!  Get ‘er started!” the burly man barked, waving for his friend to run on ahead.  The crashing was almost on top of him as he made it to the road and launched himself into the back of the pickup.  He clutched at whatever handhold he could find, the tires roaring to life and throwing up a hail of stones and a thick cloud of dirt as the truck fishtailed down the road.  Blake screamed over the roaring engine at the huge, lumbering shape silhouetted in the cloud before burying his face against the bed of the truck, not opening his eyes until he felt it slow and heard Clay’s voice.  

“You still there?  We’re back,” he said, his tone flat and measured.  Blake carefully lifted his head, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw the open field and small cabin at the forest’s edge.  Through the back window he could see Clay, arms still outstretched, gripping the steering wheel in a death grip.  “Let’s not tell the guys about this.  You know how those two are.  We don’t even know what we saw, right?”  

“Fuck that,” Blake growled, vaulting over the side of the truck.  “I know damn well what I saw!  Let’s get the boys and get the fuck outta here before that…thing...catches up with us!”  

“Absolutely not!”  Clay slid out of the cab and slammed the door, glaring at his stocky friend.  “We got spooked is all.  You bought into that old man’s bullshit and I let you get to me,” he sighed, nodding down at Blake’s shredded pants.  “You got panties on under there?  Instead of us baggin’ a deer we let one chase us outta the damn forest.”  

The dark-haired man puffed his impressive chest out and grabbed Clay’s arm.   “That was no fuckin’ deer and you know it,” he hissed.  “You ever see a deer stand ten feet on its hind legs?  You ever see one roll around when it moved like that?  Thing didn’t even have legs...it was like a blob, just pourin’ forward.”  

“Fuck it was,” Clay growled, ripping his arm free.  “We didn’t even shoot anything!  Why would it come after us?”  

“We were still hunting where we shouldn’t.  If we’re lucky maybe it’ll settle for just chasing us off.”  Blake looked around at the darkening treeline to the east and the setting sun to the west and shivered.  He peeled out of the remains of his torn shirt and tattered pants and turned to stomp off towards the back of the cabin as Andy came out onto the rickety porch.  

The chiseled blonde cocked his head as he looked at the muddy Clay and the nearly naked Blake standing in just his boxers.  “Uh...you fellas look like you had an interesting time,” he grinned.  “You run into a bear?  What the fuck happened to you?”  

“Yeah.  A bear,” Blake spat, glaring back at Clay.  “I’m gonna go wash up before it gets dark out here.”  

“Did mom and dad get into a fight?”  Kyle followed Andy onto the porch and threw an arm around the taller man, leaning into him.  

“Looks that way,” Andy shrugged as he watched Clay trudge after Blake around the edge of the cabin.  “They’ll cool off in a minute.  I was gonna see if they wanted to come help us set up the fire but they don’t really seem like they’re in the mood just now.”  

Kyle nodded.  “Wonder what happened?  Not like those two to be at each other’s throats.  Think they ran across the monster back on that “sacred ground” or whatever?”  

“Only monster I saw was the one stickin’ outta Blake’s underwear,” Andy laughed, reaching down to adjust his own sizeable package through his loose gym shorts and boxers.  The brawny blonde was a mix of his arguing friends, standing as tall as Clay, but covered in a more sculpted version of Blake’s thick muscle.  

“You would be lookin’ at that, wouldn’t you?” Kyle grinned, giving Andy’s granite cheeks a slap before darting out of his friend’s grip.  

“Fuck, you’ve seen it.  Hard to miss,” Andy whistled, running a hand over his short blonde hair before raising an eyebrow in his friend’s direction.  “Unlike the magnifying glass we need for you.”  

“Hey, anytime you wanna see it,” Kyle cooed, grabbing his crotch through his cut off denim shorts.  The bodybuilding blonde was right, he was the least hung of the group, but as the resident pretty-boy he never had any complaints.   With a thick head of wavy, chocolate hair, a charming, boy-next-door face, and an athletic body that was ripped without being bulky, he didn’t need Blake’s massive organ.  

“The only thing I wanna see right now is a beer and a fire,” Andy said, walking the long way around the house to give Blake and Clay privacy at the outdoor shower.  He could hear the water running but didn’t hear any arguing, which he took as a good sign.  They hadn’t even been at the cabin for a full day yet, and the last thing anyone needed was people arguing for the rest of the trip.  It was supposed to be their boy’s week, a chance to relax and unwind like they used to, before adult responsibilities weighed on them.  They were still relatively young in their early twenties, but they all knew it wouldn’t be long before even these weeks became a fond memory.  

“You brought the fire, I brought the beer,” Kyle said, tossing Andy a can as he sat next to his friend.  He cracked his open and downed half in one swig, letting out a loud belch as he nodded at the roaring tower of flame.  “Good job on the build.”  

“I still remember you assholes trying to get the fires started in Scouts,” the blonde bull laughed.  “Figured we wanted one before the sun came back up.”  

Kyle smiled at the memory and stared at the dancing flames as he downed the rest of his beer.  “Oh, good news, those two stopped bitching at each other.  Bad news is I saw ‘em both naked when I got the beers.  They said they’d be out in a bit.”  

“See?  I told you they’d…” Andy stopped short, suddenly alert.  He’d heard a loud snap that came from the trees behind them, not the crackling fire.  “Did you hear...”  

He didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence.  It was as if the forest itself had suddenly sprung to life, a section of the tree line breaking off and darting forward to seize Andy before either of them could react.  It happened so fast the well-built jock didn’t even have time to scream before he was lifted into the air.  By the time Andy realized what was happening his impressive body was tensed and locked in place, leaving him unable to do anything other than stare at the mossy horror that held him in a vice grip.  

“FUCK!  OH FUCK!  WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”  The grappled stud heard Kyle’s shriek of terror, followed by the sounds of frantic, scrambling footsteps through the brush.  

Andy couldn’t blame his friend for running. He was an even six feet tall and two hundred and fifteen pounds of burly, solid muscle, yet the towering horror with the vine covered face and breath like a stagnant pond was holding him in the air like he was a paper doll.  He couldn’t tell if it was hands or vines or branches that held him aloft, but he knew that even if he’d been able to move, any struggle would have been in vain.  He could feel the creeping growth twisting like steel cables up his sturdy legs and around his barrel chest and meaty arms, but it was the creatures glowing green eyes that held him transfixed.  

The luminescent orbs were mesmerizing.  Andy lost all track of time as he was held aloft, the world around him fading to a pair of bright green points.  There was no fear or panic or pain; just the flickering, emerald witch lights that left him in a slack-jawed daze.  He couldn’t even muster a sense of fear when he felt his body start to change.  At first he thought the vines were simply tightening their grip when they began to slither around him, until he saw his noticeably less-bulky shoulder out of the corner of his eye. 

He could feel the change in earnest after that, the strange sucking, weightless sensation as his hard-earned muscle was drawn out of him.  His protruding pecs flattened and his ripped abs faded as his arms dwindled, his waist pulling inwards all the while until his baggy gym shorts and boxers fell from his shrinking lower half.  The warm evening air caressing his exposed backside sent a shiver through his naked body that jarred Andy partially back to his senses.  He tried to fight the terrible numbness that had taken hold of his mind, to cling to what remained of his identity as the true horror began to unfold.  He wasn’t just being devoured; he was being replaced.  The creature wasn’t just eating away at his body; it was pumping something new inside him even as it swallowed his muscle and sense of self.  

Andy groaned as his mind filled with strange new thoughts and desires, images of himself in a lithe, slender body, on his knees with his friends’ solid cocks inches from his dripping face.  The thought made the former meathead’s own significantly smaller member throb as he tried desperately to tell himself this wasn’t him.  He couldn’t possibly love the thought of Clay’s fat cock shooting down his throat any more than he could relish the thought of riding Blake until he could hardly walk.  It wasn’t really him who was so soft and curvy and effeminate.  It couldn’t be.  

He felt that knowledge slip away when he began to cum.  His little nub spurted wildly at the confusing new thoughts, leaving Andy unsure of who or what he was as the world burned in emerald fire around him.  

**********

“GUYS!  HELP!  SOMETHING’S FUCKIN’ OUT HERE!”  Clay and Blake froze at the sound of Kyle’s frantic screams shattering the deep silence of the countryside.  They were still in the process of getting dressed from the shower, Blake in a fresh pair of boxers and Clay in his briefs, digging through the small refrigerator, when their friend burst into the cabin, nearly tearing the flimsy screen door off its hinges in the process.  “IT FUCKIN’ GOT HIM, MAN.  IT GOT HIM!”  Kyle’s bare torso was pale, his eyes wide and his arms shaking as he reached out and clutched at his friends. 

“What got him,” Clay asked, guiding the breathless man to a chair.  

“I don’t know!  I don’t know!  It was huge...like a bear or something, but it didn’t look like a…” the trembling jock trailed off, pushing his friends away when they tried to make him sit.  “He’s still out there!  We’ve gotta go get him!”  

Blake’s eyes bored into Clay’s as they pushed Kyle back down into the chair.  “I told you we should’ve left!  I told you!”

“Not.  Now.”  Clay glared back.  “Don’t let him outta your sight.  I’m gonna go put some pants on and grab…” he paused, then stomped a frustrated foot.  “Fuck!  I lost my gun in the woods earlier.”  

“Me too,” Blake said.  “And these guys didn’t bring any.”  

“Did you not hear me?!  That thing’s got Andy!  Why are we still here?”  Kyle struggled up from the chair and backed away from his friends, a confused look on his face.  “What aren’t you telling me?  What the fuck’s out there?!”  

“Look, man, earlier we ran into...something...back in the woods.  It chased us out,” Blake started before Clay cut him off.  

“But it was probably just a deer or a bear defending its territory,” the lean man quickly added.  “This bitch is just convinced he saw a monster.”  

“You weren’t supposed to be back there,” Kyle said softly.  “That old man told us.  That lady at the store told us.  Hell, the guy who rented us the cabin told us.  Even me and Andy told you!”  

“Come on!  You don’t really think there’s some…” 

“Guys...guys!  Look!”  Blake clapped them both on the shoulder and turned them to look through the screen door at the figure stumbling towards the cabin.  It was hard to make out the details in the fading daylight, an excuse Blake clung to as the naked stranger drew closer and his brain tried to convince him of the impossible.  They were softened, but there was no denying the small, slender man’s face bore Andy’s features beneath the still-buzzed scalp.  It was the only thing recognizable about their friend who had somehow gone from a broad-shouldered, piston-armed stud to a slight, supple waif.  The shrunken man’s bulging pecs were gone entirely, replaced by a pair of tiny nipples that seemed to sit flat on his torso above a softened belly that should have been lined with solid abs.  Like his missing chest, Andy’s powerful arms were now dainty and fragile looking, with barely a hint of definition in sight.  The same went for the tree-trunk thighs that were now round and yielding, like the bouncing, pillowy cheeks that hung off their backside.  The pinchable thighs were offset by a thin, three inch cock that poked pitifully out between them above a set of petite balls, a far cry from the hung jock’s former, girthy endowment.  

“Guys…?  Something...something...happened to me…” Andy stammered in a high, light voice that was nowhere near the deep rumble it should have been.  “I...think?”  

“Shit, man, get in here,” Blake said, pulling Andy inside and slamming the door shut.  The burly man winced when he felt his rough paw wrap all the way around his friend’s shrunken arm, his eyes going wide when he saw they stood the same height.

“An...Andy?”  Kyle’s voice was a hoarse whisper as he stared at the diminutive creature wearing his friend’s face.  It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, yet in that time the towering wall of muscle had turned into something soft and delicate that gazed at them with bright, hungry eyes.

“Whoa…” Andy gasped as he stumbled into Blake’s furry torso from his friend’s rough tug on his arm.  He put a small hand on his friend’s slab of a chest to steady himself, looking confused as it slid down the hairy muscle gut and into Blake’s boxers to wrap around the thick, girthy organ inside.  “Whoa!” he grinned, giving the wide beast a tug.  

“Hey!  What are you doing?!”  Blake yelped and pulled away, blushing at the sensation of the soft, dainty hand on his package.  It was nothing like the rugged, meaty paw it should have been, sending a troubling throb to the rousing beast.  

“He’s clearly out of it, man,” Kyle said, pulling Andy away with hesitant hands, as if he was afraid to touch his altered friend.  “Go get him a shirt or something to put on.”  Blake nodded, dazed, and hurried to one of the bedrooms.  

“Are...are you...okay?”  Clay asked, feeling awkward as he followed Andy’s twinkling, thirsty eyes to his stuffed briefs.  “I mean...does it hurt?”  

“No?  I just feel...turned on…” he said, purring the last part as he tugged on his shrunken poker.  He stroked his soft, flattened chest with his other hand, looking up at his two friends with a dim smile instead of blind horror.  “I’m so...small,” he giggled.  “Fuck...is this my meat?  It’s a fuckin’ baby dick,” he laughed, louder this time as he started squirming.  “Are these really my arms?  Where’d my muscle go?  Why’s my ass so big?”  Instead of sharing in his friends’ horror, Andy’s lightened voice was a seductive, lustful moan, his questions sounding like he was trying to talk dirty more than really figure out where his body had gone.  “You guys are so big and strong and I’m so sm...smaaaAAAIIIIEEEE!”  The former stud startled his friends as his shrunken body spasmed with his piercing shriek of pleasure, his tiny cock spurting pitifully.  

“At least it, uh, still works,” Kyle said after a stunned silence.  

Clay was too busy trying to wrap his head around the fact that he’d just watched a small, feminine version of Andy jerk off in front of them to tell if Kyle was joking or not.  He started to tell his friend it wasn’t funny when there was a loud crash from the bedroom Blake had run to, followed by the sounds of a struggle.