The day passed slowly. Without a sphinx form of his own, Hawk has forced to retain the shape of a bird, which meant any conversation Louis had with him was pretty one-sided. As such, it should have been pretty easy for Louis to tell him the true nature of his Hasib’s arrangement with Ruh. And yet, he didn’t. They hadn’t had chance to speak since their fight that morning. Louis hadn’t forgiven him yet.
He told himself he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Hasib was the one who wanted to “reconnect” with Ruh, so there was no reason for Hawk to be jealous. What’s more, it was an act of charity for Hasib, a gift perhaps, to recompense for taking his life so unjustly. Hasib would be in control, not Louis.
Night fell. The full moon cast a pale glow across the sandstone city. Louis felt Hasib’s excitement growing. He held out his arm, ushering Hawk from his shoulder onto his wrist.
‘I’m going to give control back to Hasib now. Wait for us at the Mortuary.’
After a pause, perhaps from reluctance, Hawk spread his wings and flew away. Louis watched his silhouette disappear into the night’s sky and closed his eyes.
Hasib opened his eyes. He was in his body again. Even the second time, he couldn’t resist the impulse to examine himself, to remind himself what having arms and legs felt like. Then he remembered what he was about to do and felt a tingle in his nethers. For a dead man, he’d never felt more alive.
The Royal Bath House was forbidden to all but the highest echelons of the aristocracy. Fortunately, as an ambassador, Hasib was counted among that number. As was the Hierophant. Nevertheless, the bath water was heated by the sun, so the place was normally empty after dark. A fact that Ruh must have known all too well.
Hasib entered, descended a flight of steps and followed a maze of marble columns and arched corridors. The air was hot and humid. He passed pools and baths, some yet steaming but without a ripple to disturb the stillness. He wanted to call out for Ruh but that seemed like an affront to the quiet. Yet his heart thudded like a drum, beating so hard he was surprised he couldn’t hear the echo. Then he heard the sound of rippling water. It was quiet, and might have been missed if the building wasn’t empty. In the silence, it sang like a horn, beckoning Hasib toward it.
The sound lead Hasib to a chamber at the heart of the bathhouse. An arch inlaid with glittering mosaic opened into a domed room. The air was filled with steam, rising from a floor level pool in the centre of the room. Sat in the pool, leaning against the side with his muscular arms outstretched on the pool’s edge, was Ruh.
‘I feared you might not come,’ he said.
Hasib opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out.
Ruh stood and waded towards Hasib. The water came up to his waist, and though the ripples and steam obscured all that was below that, Hasib could see from the blur of white and flash of something pink that Ruh no longer wore his breechcloth. Aside from the plaits in his mane and the beads around his neck, Ruh was naked. Hasib had seen Ruh naked before, but back when they were cubs. He had never dreamed of seeing this.
‘Tell me honestly,’ said Ruh. ‘Did you miss me?’
Hasib couldn’t lie. ‘I did.’
‘As a friend?’
Hasib paused. ‘I thought that’s all we were. But the truth is, I’ve never cared for anyone as I do for you.’
Ruh smiled. Holding out his hand to Hasib, he approached, climbing the steps that led out of the pool. With each step, more of his body was lifted above the surface, water rolling and dripping off his white fur. Then his cock, pale pink and erect, though far meatier than Hasib remembered. He felt blood rushing to his cheeks. And his groin.
Ruh stopped in front of him, damp and naked. He leaned forward and kissed Hasib deeply. Hasib submitted himself to Ruh completely, although he felt a stab of guilt. It was not his own. The guilt was coming from Louis, ashamed of what that damned bird might think. Hasib pushed Louis further back into his mind. He did not want anything to spoil this.
Ruh’s hands wandered and found the tent Hasib was pitching beneath his robe. Ruh grasped at the bulge and Hasib staggered. Ruh’s other hand caressed the uncovered part of Hasib’s chest, gently rotating his thumb around the nipple. Hasib’s own hands hovered over Ruh’s body, unsure where to touch, eventually choosing to clutch at his mane. Eventually, Ruh’s hand drifted up from the nipple to the brass clasp that held Hasib’s robe in place. With a simple flick, it was undone and Hasib gasped a little as he felt his robe loosen. Then, Ruh pulled his other hand away from Hasib’s cock and the robe came with it. It fluttered through the air and landed to float on the surface of the water.
Hasib tried not to look awkward or embarrassed as Ruh examined his naked body. He was hardly as strong or muscular as Ruh, but his years of travel had made him lithe and athletic. It occurred to Hasib that he, too, had changed from his adolescent years. His body was as new to Ruh as Ruh’s was to him. Ruh caressed the cocoa fur on Hasib’s arms, brushed through his black mane, followed the tuft of dark fur that ran down his chest and led to his erect cock.
Ruh held it in his palm, rubbing gently as he grinned at Hasib. His touch was so slight and yet Hasib found himself murmuring and flinching from the pleasure. The Ruh opened his wide jaw and took Hasib into his mouth. Hasib roared. Ruh’s broad, prickly tongue felt incredible as Ruh dragged it across the length of his shaft. Not even the minotaur’s tongue felt so good. And Ruh was far more gentle than Hawk had ever been. They didn’t know each other as well as Hasib and Ruh did. They weren’t this intimate.
Hasib paused. He had never bedded with Hawk. These were Louis’s memories. In a bid to oust Louis from his mind, he grabbed Ruh by the shoulders and threw him into the pool. Ruh surfaced, laughing, and Ruh pounced. Their bodies pressed against each other in the steamy water.
They slowed. Ruh looked into Hasib’s golden eyes, and Hasib into Ruh’s icy blue. Ruh pushed Hasib away. Hasib was momentarily confused, watching Ruh crawl up the steps. Then Ruh looked back at Hasib, perched on the steps on all fours, his rump saddling the surface of the water. He flicked his tail aside.
Hasib understood, but was momentarily daunted. He waded slowly towards Ruh and positioned himself so his hard member was at the appropriate height. He paused again, then put his hands on Ruh’s outstretched thighs. Slowly, timidly, he inserted his cock into Ruh. Ruh growled, then purred.
Hasib felt Louis’s guilt again, ashamed to be enjoying this. He batted Louis away once more. But something was bubbling in his mind. A feeling of impatience, of lust, of furious hunger.
‘What’s wrong?’ said Ruh.
‘I…’
Hasib gasped as he saw his fur thinning on his arms. His arms were swelling too, the fur being consumed by mottled olive green.
‘No!’ he grunted. He tried to fight it but the orc surged inside of him. He grew, his lithe frame bulking with fat and muscle. And his cock, fattening inside Ruh so that Ruh cried out in pain.
‘What’s happening?’ he cried.
‘Oh, yeeeesss!’ said a deep, gravelly voice that was not Hasib.
The orc felt the mane thin around his head but bunch up on his chin into his familiar beard. The lion’s fangs shifted and pushed out into fat tusks. His tail slithered up into his broad rump. Though the cocoa fur vanished into the orc’s light dusting of body hair, the dark treasure trail was something he and the sphinx shared.
The orc looked down and realised he had a muscular, white sphinx riding his cock.
‘Let me show you,’ the orc grunted happily. ‘I’ll do you right.’
Ruh hissed as the orc pulled him in. He lifted the sphinx out of the water and against his body, supporting him with his left hand and his cock. With his right hand, he grabbed the sphinx’s cock and jerked it furiously, whilst also bouncing him on his own cock.
Ruh kicked and thrashed, but he couldn’t connect with the orc and his feet could only skim the surface of the water.
‘What’s wrong?’ grumbled the orc. ‘That sphinx was never gonna get you off at that rate.’
Ruh’s leg swung forward and then back, his heel planting directly between the orc’s legs. The orc doubled over and Ruh slid off his cock, landing in the water with a splash.
He scrambled to his feet and turned back to the orc, ready to attack. But there was no orc. There was only a wolf, swimming frantically away from Ruh. It dragged itself up onto the edge and looked back at Ruh with a defensive snarl. Then it barked, as it did it ballooned outwards.
Ruh staggered back in shock as the creature filled the room, its fur vanishing under thick, wet scales. It’s neck and tail stretching out and whipping around the room. Wings burst out of its back and a shrieking snarl from its throat.
Then the snarl became a whinny. Its tail split into golden strands, the scales were consumed by white and chestnut fur and the creature shrank as it stumbled back into the pool. But just as Ruh was able to recognise a horse, it reared up and waded forward on its hind legs. The tusks and olive skin flickered across its body, but it continued to shrink and the orc was buried under cocoa fur. A flash of Hasib’s grief-stricken face before that too was swallowed by pink skin.
Both the orc and the sphinx vanished from the man-like frame of the creature and it continued to shrink until it was a human. A short, scrawny young man who stood naked and wet in the middle of the pool. He looked embarrassed. The water came up to his navel.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said earnestly. ‘I can explain.’