Fire and Ice III
Chapter III - A Bond Is Forged
© Cederwyn Whitefurr
July 2003.
All Rights Reserved.

Sir Kathis blinked and sat up, rubbing his bleary eyes as he spotted Jessica tending the cauldron and brushing a mixture of vegetables and herbs into the steaming pot.

"Good morning," She spoke, one long ear flicking backwards towards him.

"Morning? I.I did not realise that I was so tired." Sir Kathis admitted, as he rose and stretched.

Jessica smiled weakly to herself, then turned and picked up a carved wooden bowl and dumped some dark coloured meat into the cauldron and stirred it slowly.

"There's a fresh pot of chamomile tea here if you wish of some." She spoke quietly.

Sir Kathis nodded and as he took the stone mug from Jessica, her hoof-paw touched his hand and he gasped as a short, sudden spark of electricity leapt from her claw-tip to his outstretched hand. Even Jessica yelped, the stone mug falling from her suddenly nerveless hoof-paw and exploding against the floor with a soft cough. Shaking herself, she hurriedly knelt and began gingerly picking up the pieces, the front of her loose smock parting at the neck and revealing the finely furred creamy curves of her ample bosom. Sir Kathis gasped again and hurriedly averted his eyes, but Jessica's ears flattened and she rose, then turned away and clasped her hoof-paws to her mouth, tears welling in her eyes.

"Milady, please - I did not mean to offend you." Sir Kathis spoke as he moved up behind her and gently laid his hand on her quaking shoulder. Sniffling, Jessica suddenly whirled about and pulled him tight, burying her muzzle against his chest as she sobbed heartbrokenly. Surprised and a little overcome, Sir Kathis didn't know what to make of this, but he instinctively embraced her and began stroking her neck and back soothingly.

"I'm a freak - " Jessica wailed, her claws digging into his back. "A freak of nature, neither human nor animal, unwelcome by humans who feared me, and only finding a vague solace in the wild animals of my wood."

"No milady," Sir Kathis sighed as he ran a hand tenderly across her ears, smoothing them down. "You're not. You are.beautiful."

Jessica blinked and pushed herself away from him her deep, misty eyes staring into his sea green ones. He gazed back at her with a mixture of respect and true concern.

"How... how can you say such a thing?" Jessica whimpered as she pulled away and turned her back on him. "How can you look upon my form, and say that I am beautiful? I am no fair maiden, awaiting some Knight in shining armour to come carry her away for a fairytale wedding. I'm not even a maiden Doe.."

"Milady, please.speak not so." Sir Kathis whispered, as he gently turned her around and stroked her wet cheek with his fingertips. "You are not a maiden, by your own admission, but you are no less fair. Truly, I have ridden the length and breadth of the kingdom, met thousands of young ladies, both fair and not, but you are by far and away, the most.lovely.I have ever met. The dewy look in your eyes, the beautiful markings of your fur, that lovely black muzzle-stripe.."

As his fingers trailed down her muzzle-stripe, Jessica whimpered and shivered, but did not try to pull away.

"You're lying," Jessica spoke, hanging her head.

"Milady, you and I both know your sense of smell is more sensitive than my own can ever be, you have the ability to discern truth from lie by my scent alone. Look into my eyes, and tell me honestly, if I am lying." Sir Kathis whispered, as he gently cupped her chin in his and made her look into his eyes.

"You....you're speaking the truth," Jessica tearfully admitted. "Yet how can you look on me with such love and trust, and."

Her nose wrinkled as her soft, fawn-like expression slowly widened, her senses registering his heightened interest in her. Sir Kathis blinked and gasped, then twisted away from her and stormed out of the cottage, his face flushed with blood, shame washing from him in waves. Jessica turned away and clasped her paws against the mantle, leaning her head against the stone and breathing deeply.

*

Outside, Sir Kathis stood, watching the thick fog swirl to and fro, and he put his fingers to his lips and whistled long and loud. Fully expecting to hear the whinny of his mount, Sir Kathis paused and waited.and waited.and waited, finally, he blinked and yelled out into the fog, which seemed to echo his words back to him with a low, inaudible whispering.

Feeling the icy tendrils of the chilling fog grasping at his ankles, Sir Kathis spent a few more moments out in the cold, bringing his emotions back under iron-like control, ashamed he had allowed his desires to become so evident. He jumped as seemingly from the fog itself, a furred hoof-paw landed on his shoulder.

"Sir Knight - please, come in out of the fog," Jessica whispered into his ear. "You'll catch the death of cold out here."

Hesitating, Sir Kathis turned and took Jessica's hoof-paw in his own, and allowed her to lead him back inside the cottage.

*

Inside the cottage, Jessica turned and slipped in tight against him, then pushed herself up on her hoof-tips, and lightly ran her furred cheek against his.

"Sir Knight," Jessica breathed into his ear. "I know this may seem impudent of me, but I know your desire, and I.what I mean is I would.with your consent."

"Milady, please, you know not of what you ask of me!" Sir Kathis gasped. "I, I could not.it would not be right."

Jessica blinked, then turned away, hanging her head and crying bitterly. "It's because I'm an animal.isn't it?"

Fighting his churning emotions, Sir Kathis embraced her and turned her back around, once again raising her muzzle to gaze into her eyes.

"No milady, it...it would not be right, for me, a mere Knight, to bed a woman of high-born status." He spoke, tenderly stroking her cheek.

"What is status here Sir Knight? I am a female you are a male.and quite a handsome male. Who need know of our joining? I would not breath a word of it, as you have seen, I am a loner.who preferred her solitude. However, since you have come.my own, long suppressed longings for a male's caress, even for a single night has returned to haunt me. I have not lain with a male since my beloved was murdered."

"I...milady, please, you do not know what you ask of me! I...I will not deny that I find you attractive, and." Sir Kathis stammered.

Jessica smiled shyly, and then her hoof-paw stroked his rough stubbled cheek, sending ripples of pleasure surging through his body.

"Sir Kathis, please - " Jessica breathed, sliding a hoof-paw suggestively across his armoured chest. "Milady, I...I can not do as you ask of me! Please, you must understand, I am honor bound by my oath of chastity and obligations!"

Jessica sighed, her ears folding down as she nodded and turned away, retrieving two wooden bowls into which she ladled some of the delicious smelling stew. Placing one before him, she smiled shyly and broke a loaf of fresh, coarse bread and handed half of it to him. He gratefully accepted the bread and trying to remain dignified and self-controlled, he smelt the aroma from the stew and fell too with a voraciousness that made Jessica's eyes widen in surprise. With a shy, nervous giggle, she began scooping her own stew out with her fingers, licking each wet, sticky finger clean with slow, sensuous movements of her surprisingly long tongue. This fact was not lost on Sir Kathis, who coughed and flushed crimson, the high colour crawling into his cheeks.

After their breakfast, during which Sir Kathis had three helpings of the stew, Jessica rose and turned away, as she picked up a small corked clay jug and poured its contents into two shallow wooden bowls. Whilst Sir Kathis was distracted, Jessica smiled to herself and retrieved a small pinch of a fine, snow-white powder, which she sprinkled into his bowl before turning back around and placing them both on the table. Sir Kathis leant back in his chair and belched loudly, and Jessica stared at him in surprise, before he blinked and coughed, once again the colour rising in his cheeks as he mumbled an apology. Jessica shook her long eared head slowly, her ears flopping from side to side as she raised her bowl in her hoof-paws and carefully sipped the honey-mead. Trying to remember his manners and decorum, Sir Kathis did the same, but he spilt some of his onto his vest and Jessica giggled.

"Sorry," Sir Kathis mumbled. "I'm not.used to drinking such beautiful mead from a bowl. Tell me, did you make this yourself?"

"So tell me, my brave, honour-bound knight." Jessica responded, smoothly changing the subject, as she sipped her honey-mead. "What is this grand and noble quest that you are on?"

Sir Kathis blinked, then the room swirled and spun around him, as he staggered to his feet and stumbled back against the wall.

"What's happening to me? It.it's got to be the mead, it's stronger than I'm used too.."

Jessica's eyes widened in surprise and pleasure, as she smoothly rose and slowly ran her paws down her smock, intentionally rubbing her hoof-paws over her breasts suggestively, and down her tight stomach and slender thighs, her hoof-paws rubbing slightly inwards and up. Sir Kathis' eyes were like a pair of boiled turnips, as they watched her hoof-paws, his scent changing as the endorphins began surging through his blood. Sensuously, Jessica sidled up close to him and pressed her warm, furred body against his, and nuzzled his neck, murring deep in the back of her throat, her teardrop shaped tail flicking swiftly to and fro.

His resolve melted like a spring-thawed icicle, and he grabbed her roughly around the shoulders and pressed his body against hers, his lips forcing themselves against her furred ones, as he groaned in almost bestial-like lust, then began clawing at her stained smock. Jessica gasped and pushed herself out of his grasp, then giggled like a maiden doe on her wedding night and almost as if she were an ethereal ghost, she slipped through his clumsy grasp he made for her, and moved gracefully behind him, her sharp claw tips caressing his throat, raising red welts. He spun about, just as
she giggled again and her slender, teardrop shaped tail flicked at him and she disappeared into the bedchambers. He stumbled like a man drunk on honey-mead, his mind and body inflamed with the thoughts and sensations that flooded in on him, his body electrified with the burning lust that fuelled him.

As he stumbled after her, he tripped and fell over his sword-belt, partially dislodging his sword from its scabbard. Angrily kicking it away, he nearly broke down the bedroom door in his lustful advance.

*

Lying discarded, his sword partly unsheathed, it cast its brilliant blue glow, and the arctic-cold flames rippled and ran along the exposed blade. If Sir Kathis had been more conscious of his surroundings, he would have realised what this cerulean flame meant.for he'd seen it a dozen times before, for there was only one time that his sword burned with such fire...and that was when it was within close proximity to its sworn enemy..

To Be Continued.