Alex spent the better part of an afternoon, exploring the town as he searched the any sign of Marsyas in the crowds. The labyrinthine streets, with no signs or indication of direction, were confusing to Alex. After walking in circles Alex decided to ask a local for directions to this guild Marsyas mentioned. He stopped by a food stall where a man with colorful tattoos on his back and a long, braided blond beard, turning bits of meat on skewers over a burning grill.
“Excuse me, sir? Could you point me towards, the ugh, Guild, please?” he asked uncertainly. The cook looked up at him and wiped his brow.
“Go that way six blocks and turn a left at the seventh. Follow that road, can’t miss it.” And he turned back to his task.
He followed the man’s instructions walking the first five blocks before suddenly realizing he couldn’t remember if the man said left or right. As he stood at the intersection of the seventh block, he took a gamble and made right, walking down a narrow alleyway lined with trash bins and rain barrels. He continued down the deserted alleyway, emerging into an open plaza surrounded by tall buildings and bustling with crowds of men. But upon closer inspection Alex realized this square wasn’t full of men at all, but bustling crowds of beast men.
A pair of hulking minotaurs were operating a popular grill stall, sweat glistening off their lightly furred, muscled chests and dripping into the shaggy fir of their bovine legs below. Though their upper torsi vaguely resembled a man’s their heads bore long, pointed horns and beastly faces that seemed a mix of man and bull. A crowd of other beast-men jostled at the stall, wolfmen, foxmen, pigmen, all kinds. A pair of slender fauns gossiped at the base of a towering pine tree while a swarm of children all sporting animal features ran and tousled on the grass of the great plaza. As Alex was about to step onto the street, he was almost ran over by an actual centaur, trotting down the road and pulling a cart full of goods from his powerful, equine back. Alex noticed after a cursory glance that none of the beast men were wearing clothing, and also, that there was not a single other human man in the plaza.
He stepped into the plaza cautiously. It seemed that all the beast-men in this town lived in one part. They gave him curious glances as he walked down the street, whispering to each other with lecherous grins on their faces. Some of the business were familiar to Alex; Apothecary, General goods, masonry. But there were others that Alex hadn’t seen elsewhere in town: a piercing parlor, a clothing store that seemed to only sell skimpy formal-wear, and something called Hoof & Tack. As he walked past the many different kinds of Anthro-men he wondered if they could shift between and animal and humanoid form or if that was just a werewolf thing. Alex passed a group of rowdily gossiping werewolves, their tails curled upward and wagging with excitement as they talked and guffawed. Alex saw their sharp pointed ears perk up, a few of them to sniff in Alex’s direction.
“Hey, there sweet thing? What brings you to our part o’ town?” one of them inquired with a devilish grin.
“Take those clothes off, human! We have no shame here!”
“Where you going, meatbag?”
Alex ignored them and kept walking. A few of the other beast men made similar remarks as he passed. He decided he’d try and find his way out of here, maybe head back to the pub. He turned down a deserted side street, noticing as he did two individuals following him from afar. He took a surreptitious look over his shoulder, spying a corpulent pig-man and what looked like a faun, only his horns were taller and wickedly curved and his face was much more goat-like that Marsyas’ handsome mug. Alex quickened his pace, wishing he had a weapon of some kind on him. His blessings had given him strength for sure, but these beast-men were large and powerful. He didn’t know if he stood a chance. Alex tried to out-maneuver them but found himself at a dead end, with the two beast-men rounding the corner.
The pig man was corpulent, sagging pink skinned man-tits hanging over a bulbously large pink, round bellow. He smiled a toothy grin from behind his short, curled tusks, an evil look gleaming in his yellow eyes. The faun looked fiendish as well, his fur a fiery red and his horns curling up over his head wickedly. The faun’s face was strongly goat-like, from the flat, flaring nostrils to the yellow eyes with ovular pupils.
“This one looks delicious,” said the strange faun in an annoying, high pitched voice.
“Young too. I haven’t had a human since last night,” the pig man snorted. There were angry red boils popping out of his porcine nose. Alex noticed both their cocks growing from their crotches, girthy and enormous like the other beast-men he had encountered.
“Get the fuck away from me,” Alex snarled in his new deeper register.
“Feisty,” said the pig man. He lurched forward but then suddenly froze and fell down flat on his face. Alex saw an angry, steaming burn the size of a dinner plate on the man’s back. Alex looked towards the opening of the alley, the twisted faun turning to look as well; Alex’s heart leapt.
Marsyas stood at the entry of the alley, his axe in one hand. Alex noticed he had cleaned up; his shaggy hair had been combed and tied into a knot and his beard trimmed and styled. He stomped his cloved hoof and shouted down the alley, “Step away from the human, Gylus.” He said, disgust in his voice.
The creature growled, “Marsyas. Just having a bit of fun,” he sneered.
“Yeah, well. Fuck off, satyr. He’s with me.” Marsyas looked to Alex and beckoned. “C’mon, man, lets get you out of here.” Alex rushed away from the satyr, leaving him to deal with the hopefully dead pig man on his own.
When they had put some distance behind them, Alex finally spoke up. “Thank you, Marsyas. I was fine out in the square until those guys started following me.” He spoke.
“Don’t sweat it, my friend.” The faun’s hand drifted to the small of Alex’s back as he led them through the streets. “Moblins are usually alright,” he said, referring to the pig-man. “But I don’t like satyrs in the best of times.” He spat.
“Fauns and satyrs don’t get along?” he presumed.
“We hate each other. Fauns worship nature and use their magic to nourish the earth, our lust comes from the heart, as well as our loins. But satyrs use their magic for conceited purposes, and so it corrupts their minds and their bodies. Black magic is powerful, but inherently corruptive and dangerously addictive.”
“How do you know that satyr, Gylus?” Alex inquired. But Marsyas quickly changed the subject.
“Did you make a decision today?” he asked hopefully.
“Kind of…” and Alex relayed his return to the wizard and the details of Pascal’s problem.
“Wow, that’s pretty ambitious, attempting to bind Meljin like that. I hope it works, otherwise he’s going to be pissed.” The faun said when Alex finished.
“Is that the god he was referring to?”
“Yes, Meljin. A trickster god of lust, sex, and transformation. Its said the Meljin created the beast-man in the Beginning. Many of them still worship him as their principal god.”
“So, he’s real?” Alex asked, stunned.
The faun looked confused. “Of course, he’s real! Doesn’t your world have gods and…whatever, these…women gods?”
“Goddesses. And no one really knows. If there are, they haven’t shown themselves in a long time.”
“Strange. This relic, did he say where the tomb was?” asked Marsyas.
“Ugh, no. We shook hands and he told me to come by later tonight and he’d give me everything I need.” Marsyas stopped in his tracks.
“You shook hands?” he asked, disappointment in his voice.
“Yeah, I was leaving; it’s what you do. Its polite…” Marsyas cut him off.
“Not when you’re making a deal with a wizard! Handshakes are a magically binding contract! Now you have to go find the relic.” He said, shaking his head and turning away from Alex.
Alex bit his lip and then said, “Your haircut looks very handsome,” he said. Marsyas wiped his face with his hand to cover a smile.
“Thanks, man. But you’re not getting away that easily.” He said, stepping up to Alex and putting his hands at the man’s waist. “You owe me some money, as I recall. And while do enjoy that hard cock and sweet ass of yours, it will take more than that to pay back your debt.”
“What do you mean,” Alex said as the faun’s hands creeped around to settle on his ass-cheeks.
“I mean, there’s no way I’m letting you trek out to a fallen wizards tomb on your own. From this day forward, until I deem you worthy, you are my apprentice. We’ll fetch this artifact for the wizard, and then you’ll continue your training together.” He spoke. He kissed Alex on the lips before stepping back and holding out his hand.
“Do you accept?” he asked, and when Alex reached out, added, “Remember what I told you about handshakes.” He said ominously.
Alex took the faun’s hand and shook it, feeling a strange tickling sensation. Pulling his hand back he noticed a blue line, tattooed around his wrist.
“What the…?”
“Don’t worry,” the faun grinned. “Just an apprentice’s band. They mark your progress through your training. Now let’s go, the wizard is waiting for us.”