Alex woke much as he had the last four mornings since coming to this world, tightly wrapped in the arms of Eli. This morning Eli lay on his back with Alex curled up against him, Eli's chest making a perfect pillow for him, one of the hunter's strong arms wrapped around him and holding him close. The both sported morning erections, but after that order given him the first morning they woke up, Alex had never been able to bring himself to actually try riding Eli's cock, even if he dreamed of it every night. They hadn't even fooled around since the pond, though they ended up sleeping pressed up against each other naked every night. He could tell Eli was resisting, he just didn't know why.
They were supposed to reach the village today. The last two days of their trip had been uneventful. No ambushes by strange beasts or visits from pesky faeries. But they had started to bond. Eli taught Alex what he could of tracking and hunting while they were on the move, even teaching him to clean rabbits or birds for cooking. He asked Alex about his world, finding the whole concept of women weird but fascinating. He also couldn't grasp the idea of supermarkets, though he kept asking about those, too.
Alex looked up at Eli's face, peaceful in sleep, his hair mussed up and his beard a bit scruffy. Alex wondered what he himself looked like. He didn't need to shave more than once a week before coming to this world, but at the moment his jaw itched. He wasn't used to having a beard, and in the last four days without shaving it had grown in. He pushed himself up a bit until he could put his lips against Eli's. The other man stirred and returned the kiss for a few moments before sitting up.
"Last morning." Alex said, noting his own voice sounded a bit hollow.
Eli just nodded. Breakfast was what it was most mornings since they had been on the road, cold leftovers from dinner with a little bread and cheese to fill it out as a meal. The two sat in silence, an awkwardness between them at the moment until Eli finally spoke up. "As we get close to town and leave the woods, well, I'll change a bit. It's still me, but I'll just look a bit different." Alex arched an eyebrow. He had long since stopped asking Eli personal questions as it usually brought about an order to stop asking questions. This time Eli just sighed. "I'm bound to the woods. It's part of a curse. That's all I'll say on it, I just need to return to the woods by sundown and I'll be fine."
As soon as Alex opened his mouth Eli just shook his head, but instead of giving an order he just said, "I don't want to talk about it." Alex gave a small sigh and nodded.
An hour later they stood at the edge of the woods. Alex had heard and smelled the town before seeing it through the thick cover of trees. Smoke and clanging. Days in the forest had made him forget how loud a group of people together could be. There was a bit of clearing between the town and the woods, a wooden barricade cutting through it which swept back to encircle the whole village, though there was luckily a gate in this side. Eli took off his boots and strapped them to his pack, but as requested Alex didn't ask.
"Might as well get this over with." Eli muttered as he stepped free of the shady canopy of trees, Alex made to follow after but he kept his eyes on the hunter. The change was both slower and more sudden than he had been expecting. Eli almost immediately seemed to bulk up, every part of the already fit hunter growing more muscular and thick. This couldn't be all of it, as Alex found this part of the change to not be all that bad.
Eli seemed taller, too. But Alex looked down and noticed his legs had changed shape. His gait changing as he walked, moving from feet to walking on the balls of his feet which were becoming hoof-like, cloven hooves. Eli's dark blond leg hair had turned brown and bristly, thickening until the skin couldn't be seen underneath. His body hair was going under the same change, becoming bristly and thick, and while it spread a bit, it didn't completely cover his torso.
Eli gritted his teeth as his face stretched, his skull changing shape and Alex found himself wincing. That looked far from comfortable. The hunter was forming a porcine snout, an upturned snout of a nose at the end, his ears lengthened and shifted upwards along his head. The hunter's blond hair turned to thick bristles that stuck straight up, and grew part way down his back from the nape of his neck. All the while the pair moved closer to the town.
Lastly as they neared the gate, a pair of long curling tusks pushed free of Eli's jaw and grew up either side of his snout. He wiped his mouth on his arm and sighed, looking towards Alex. "Hideous, I know." His voice was deeper and rougher. "I'll become a mindless boar completely if I don't return by sunset." He looked back over his shoulders to the woods and then back to Alex. His eyes were the same brilliant green.
Alex leaned in and kissed the half-boared Eli. It was a different experience than kissing human lips, but he still smelled the same, like earth and wood. "No, not hideous." Alex said, reaching up to run his hands along the bristly blond hair a top Eli's head. "I think I could learn to live with it for the right guy." Eli gave him an odd look, shook his head and headed past the gate into town.
One of the gate guards greeted Eli by name and he returned the favor. They must be used to him in the town, Alex thought. Just having some half-human half-boar wander out of the woods and come into town would cause a stir, wouldn't it. It only took a few steps past the gate for Alex to realize his mistake. Dicktin was the strangest town he had ever seen. The houses and buildings made him feel like he was plopped right down in the middle of a medieval movie set, or maybe the very old part of a very old city. But that was hardly the strangest part.
While humans certainly made up more than half the individuals milling along the street there were others. Some things Alex's brain could identify easily as elves, or dwarves, or orcs. But there were also other individuals with beat-like traits like Eli, a centaur pulling a loaded cart behind him, two satyrs chatting by an alley, even a minotaur standing at a shop front hawking cuts of meat. No wonder Eli got barely a blink.
Second, every person he saw, no matter the species, was male. He though he saw one woman at one point but it was just a very pretty elf man. And he knew the elf was a man because much like Eli's kilt only aesthetic, in the warm late spring day there weren't a whole lot of clothes being worn. Many went around shirtless, chests exposed to the air. Leg coverings for modesty's sake seemed mostly in place. Kilts, or pants, shorts, one orc went by in nothing but boots and a leather thong that kept his bits tucked up neatly instead of swinging free but hid nothing. The lovely elf wore pants, but they were of such a filmy gossamer material he could make out the outlines of his legs and cock by the light passing through the fabric. Alex's own cock was rock hard under his kilt, surrounded by so many scarcely dressed men of all varieties. His distraction almost made him lose Eli. Luckily, the hunter was up ahead at one of the market stalls, bartering goods.
"Stick close, I don't want to lose you before we reach my mage friend." Eli said in his gruffer voice. Alex simply nodded, though his eyes caught to men kissing in the doorway of a home. One had a huge stomach, though the rest of his body was lean and fit. Pregnant, the man was pregnant. Another young boy clung to the man's leg asking about breakfast. Alex tried not to gawk.
Eli followed along the main road, Alex sticking close. Not by order, he didn't feel the tingle that meant their mutual promise was forcing him. That had been completed. Eli had brought him safely to town. But he clung close to the hunter anyway. There were occasional stops to barter or just outright sell certain items Eli had brought with him out of the woods. The pelts seemed to fetch the most money. At least until they reached a larger building of stone. It looked more like a small manor than the other houses or stores around it, but it still had a sign out front showing a arcane looking sigil. Eli stepped inside without hesitation. "Jarvin? You here, man? There someone I want you to meet."
Alex stepped into the room with a bit of awe. The whole room was lined with shelves, stuffed full of books and scrolls, sometimes broken up by other items, crystal balls, gauntlets, a not-so-stuffed owl that turned to look at Alex. A table sat in the middle of the room with chairs all around it. The air smelled static, as if there was hidden power just thrumming in it waiting to be released.
"Come in, Eli, sit down. I'm just making tea." Eli did as asked and took a seat, motioning for Alex to do the same. Alex didn't know what he was expecting, but the man that came through the doorway bearing a tray with a tea set on it was not it. He thought a wizard would look.. scholarly. This man looked like he broke rocks with his hands for amusement. He was as big and burly as Eli was at this moment half-turned into a boar. His black hair was long and wild, and his long black beard was braided, both speckled with threads of graying that gave at least some hint of age. He wore a pair of baggy, flowing pants with symbols embroidered around the hem, and was otherwise shirtless like all the other men Alex had seen. He set the tray down and started pouring tea.
"Jarvin, this is Alex. Alex, Jarvin. Don't let his look fool you, he used to be one of the best battle mages in the king's service until he retired." Jarvin was grinning at the introduction, setting tea down before his guests before taking some himself.
"Well, a hundred years of war magic is enough to bore anyone. No subtlety." Alex blinked a bit in shock. A hundred years? The man looked to be in his late thirties at worst.
"Nice to meet you, your, uh, wizardliness." Alex stumbled, not knowing how to properly address the man.
Jarvin looked at Eli with an arched brow and Eli just shrugged. It looked strange enough to have a boar man sipping from a teacup, but Jarvin looked just as odd doing so. "He's not bad looking, could use with a little filling out." The wizard reached out and poked Alex in the chest. "But he's young yet. You think he's the one to break your curse, Eli? I told you I can't find them for you, you have to." Eli glared at the wizard. "Ah, so you didn't tell him." The man was grinning mischievously though, he likely knew Eli well enough to know he wouldn't.
"Alex is actually from another world. I found him naked in the woods a few days ago, he was almost turned by some werewolves." Eli explained.
Jarvin reached over to one of the shelves and grabbed what looked like a jeweler's lens, fixed it to his eye and looked right at Alex through it. "Yes. Yes. I see. The residue is quite strong still. It was a long trip and done by someone very powerful. Probably a god. He's not even from one of the nearby realities, there's a few universes between his home and us. Nothing I can do for it I'm afraid, that's beyond any mortal spellcaster to fix. A god did it, and a god will have to undo it."
Eli gave Alex an apologetic look as Alex slumped in his chair. He pulled a pouch out of his bag and placed it on the table, small glass vials and bottled tinkling inside. "I'm sure we can find a place for you here in town. Someone must be looking for an apprentice."
"Weren't you thinking of taking an apprentice a while back, Eli?" Jarvin said with another sly smile, pulling the pouch to him and examining the vials. "Good work as always, my old friend."
Eli snorted, a much louder sound coming through his porcine snout. "I'm not risking it. Not with him."
The wizard began to count out gold coins onto the table, "Has Eli shared his curse with you, Alex?"
"Don't..." It was a soft warning from Eli.
"Oh, bite it you old boar. I'm not afraid of you and you won't stop doing business with me because I'm the only wizard in the only town you can get to." Despite everything there was a fondness in the wizard's tone. "You see, Eli here.."
Eli coughed. "I'll tell it then, you always get caught up in the spell part. When I was young I went hunting in the woods. I was looking for a trophy to bring back to.. well.. it doesn't matter. I was young and stupid and wandered into a part of the woods I should have stayed away from. I found this beautiful stag drinking from a pool. I slew it. My foul luck, it wasn't a stag but a fae. And not just any fae but the favored lover of a faerie prince. He cursed me for what I did. Bound me to the woods. If I leave this happens." He motioned to himself. "If I stay out of the woods past sunset, I completely become a mindless beast." It was pretty much what he had shared already, except the part about the hunt.
"You left off the best part." Jarvin interjected. "The only way to break the curse is to mate with someone he loves as much as the prince loved his stag."
"And you left of the worst part." Eli growled in return. "If I mate with someone and our bond isn't strong enough, they turn into a mindless beast. I'm not about to add a fourth person I care about to my tally. Three failed attempts is enough." Eli scooped up the gold and placed it in a pouch. He set it down on the table between him and Jarvin. "That's to help Alex. Can I trust you to take care of him and get him set up somewhere?"
The wizard sighed and nodded. Eli put a hand on Alex's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "You'll be fine. Jarvin is a good man, you can trust him." And then he was up and out the door, just like that.