Lots of school stuff has delayed this but here it is, in its entirety, Chapter 14!

Previous Chapter: http://www.sofurry.com/view/336028

I opened my eyes, flittering away bits of sleep that had collected in the corners of my eyes. Reaching my paws up, I rubbed my eyes, trying to get used to the sunlight streaming into the posh room. The whole thing seemed unreal to me. A submarine in the middle of the desert, demonic dogs that lived on the flesh of weary travelers. The whole, damned desert. Everything I had experienced in the past few weeks seemed so unlikely. I didn’t even know what to say about it. What could be said? I’ve never been all that great with words.

I opened my eyes and looked down at my paw, expecting to see the long trail of fur on my forearms. But it wasn’t there. It was just gone. There was an almost straight line where it had been cut off. I looked at my other arm and saw the same sight, missing fur and poorly cut lines.

“Fuck,” I muttered. I looked down at my chest, which was bare. The rags that had been my shirt were strewn about around me. My entire chest was missing the luxurious coat it had once so proudly displayed. My tail was thin and missing about a pound or two of thick fur. The sight of my mangled fur was nauseous. I was going to be sick!

Standing, I ran up the sloped floor to a doorway to what I later found out was the captain’s head. (It’s a Navy term, look it up!) I stared in horror at my face that wasn’t my own. It was so much thinner-- I looked malnourished.

“Shit!” I said, getting a better look at the damage. My head was in a fog and there was a dull pain in my snout. I didn’t remember what had happened but there was one person who could answer.

“Iz!” I shouted.

Outside the door, I heard a loud clang onto the metal surface of the submarine. I looked out the door of the head and glared at Isaac who had just fallen flat on his face on the floor. I growled and lunged at him, my hands picking him off the floor, his head nearly touching the ceiling.          “What the fuck have you done to me?! You fucking butchered my fur!”

Isaac’s eyes widened with fear but he closed them, exhaling slowly.

“Remember your Freshman year when you got heatstroke? It happened again. And, excuse me, but we didn’t exactly have a lot of excess water or the medicine to deal with it. I did what seemed most obvious to me at the time.”

“I look fucking ridiculous!” My voice echoed off the walls.

“You would have been a beautiful corpse. You think I want to lose you again?” Isaac growled right back at me.

“Right. God forbid you lose your fucking body guard.” I dropped him and grabbed my backpack. Pulling out a fresh shirt, I pulled it on, trying to cover the hack job Isaac had done to my fur. “I’m heading out. You want to stick with me, get your shit together now,” I said before storming out of the room, making the difficult climb up the hallway, using the pipes of the sub on my right to keep myself from slipping. I got to a small break in the sub and looked up at a vertical section of the subject. There was still the few pipes to my right with the floor becoming a wall at this awkward segment.

“Great... Just great...” I sighed to myself. I adjusted the straps on my backpack and jumped, reaching for a small pipe for me to clench. It was a strain, but I managed to reach up above my head for another pipe that groaned at my weight. I got my foot up to the first pipe and started pulling myself up. It was a good twenty feet of vertical climbing and it was slow. Each time I pulled, the pipe I was using groaned loudly in resistance. I heard a noise below me as Isaac got to the start of the vertical climb.

“Do you have a rope or anything?” Iz called up to me.

“You have it, remember?” I called down. I could tell he was unzipping his backpack to search for it.

“Screw it,” he mumbled, after a little bit of searching. “C-can I hop onto your back?”

“I don’t know if the pipes will hold both our weight...” I said, voicing a valid concern.

“Jase, I’m stuck down here, please,” he said, voice quivering.

“You’re afraid I’m gonna leave you here, aren’t you?”

His silence was all I needed.

Rolling my eyes, I lowered myself down a few rungs of the makeshift ladder and outstretched my hand to him. “Gonna have to jump.”

I saw him back up a little bit before darting forward in a full-on sprint. He ran at the wall, jumping as high as he could. His rough paw pads managed to get a bit of traction on the wallfloor, getting a couple steps in before falling back down. I grabbed his wrist, catching him from falling back down. The pipe in my left hand groaned again.

“Shit,” I muttered as I pulled Iz up until he could reach out and grab my shoulders. To be honest, I barely felt him, but the pipe sure did. One end snapped and started bending down so I hurriedly climbed the pipes as they began to snap beneath my grasp. I got us to the top where the sub slanted much less dramatically. Grabbing the ledge, I pulled us up, starting to feel the extra strain of carrying him. I collapsed on the ground, panting hard after the physical exertion. I think I might’ve still had some of the symptoms of heatstroke too but I wasn’t all that certain.

My head was light and I had to lie on the cool steel of the sub’s walls. I could feel my head pounding and pounding.

“Oooh. I don’t feel great…” I groaned.

“Want some water?” Iz offered. I nodded and he pulled out his flask. I could hear the water sloshing around and I knew there wasn’t much left.

“You don’t have much left…”

“I have enough,” he said. “Just drink the damn thing.”

I felt my stomach drop but I drank, tilting my head back to get the rest of the water. As it went through my system, I began to feel better. The lightheadedness was lessened and I started to go on after a struggle to get up. Of course, Isaac tried to help me up but I wouldn’t accept it. He could wallow in pain for all I cared. The bastard ruined my fur.

I know that I shouldn’t have been so angry at him but the fur was my pride and joy. And he butchered it. He couldn’t even make it kind of look nice. It was uneven, dirty and made me feel naked. Although—I will admit that it was nice to carry less weight. Not working so hard would mean that we could go on further, no longer bogged down by my sluggishness. It was nice not to have to walk in the sun. But that would end soon enough. Nothing good can stay.

* * *

The desert seemed even more brutal than before. My extra fur may have been hot, but it protected me from the severity of the sun that bore down on my head. I had hoped that we’d be able to find another place like the submarine to get some shade but we had no such luck.

We slept under the stars that night. I wouldn’t talk to him.

The next day was no different. Walking in desert heat, ignoring that bitch I used to love. It hurt to ignore him and I could tell he was hurt by the coldest of shoulder treatments, but I didn’t give a fuck. He hurt me over and over. I tried to be nice to him and be his friend once more and he threw it in my face. I figured him hurting a little would be good for him.

That night, he looked at me from across the fire, eyes holding both an intense sadness and an anger that made my neck burn. He said, very simply.

“I’m sorry.”

I bit my lip and turned away, not wanting to face him at the moment. Then I turned back and sighed, poking at the fire with a stick.

“I… I’m sorry too. I know I freaked out at you. I know you were just trying to help. It’s not so bad… I mean, I could look like your sorry ass,” I gave him a big grin and he threw a marshmallow at me, hitting my muzzle. I giggled and threw one back at him. He leaped over the fire and landed on top of me, trying to pin my down. It was a nice break from all the anger we’d been harboring towards one another. Finally, our rolling around ended with him beneath me and each of us smiling at one another and as the laughter died down, his ears laid back and his kissed me.

To say I was taken aback by his action would be putting it lightly… but I didn’t struggle. There was such a need to be near him. I pressed my body to his as the kiss began to intensify, lips locked as each of us began to melt in one another’s arms. I held his face between my paws, lightly stroking his cheeks. We pressed closer together and he began to grow braver, his tongue diving down my maw until they were playing with one another. I had to stifle a moan in order to not embarrass myself. His arms pulled me closer to him as they wrapped around my neck. I couldn’t help but run my big paws down his chest. I moved his shirt up so I could move my lips down to his chest. When I kissed his stomach, he couldn’t help but writhe in the cutest way. I ran my paws along his sides as I did so.

We finally broke the kiss and, despite our blushes, each of us were happy to lie down in one another’s arms once more. I pulled the blanket over us, now that I needed it too, and I leaned down and kissed his neck, letting my breath tickle the shorter hair that lived there.

For the first time in ages, I had pleasant dreams.

* * *

That morning, when the sun came up, it wasn’t as intense. The desert seemed to be less hostile and the whole landscape around us was more… inviting. Not by much, mind you… but inviting nonetheless. The whole day seemed more pleasant, like today wouldn’t be as bad as the past couple of days. The sand beneath my feet shifted under my weight as we made our way through the desert.

We couldn’t have been walking more than 2 hours when we saw something off in the distance. It seemed to be a small pool of water but we figured it must have been a mirage or something. The pool seemed to grow larger as we got close and that’s when we noticed that there were trees and rocks. It was still a ways off, but we were walking with a newfound strength, pulled by our curiosity.

We got close enough that we were able to see it clearly. The pool was a deep blue color and it stretched out two hundred feet or more. The entire thing was covered with Palm Trees that provided a shade that seemed odd to come by. We hadn’t seen any vegetation. Not even cactuses or anything. There was a small group of rocks in the sun and it seemed like a perfect place to stop and enjoy the sunshine.

“Race ya!” Isaac called, running toward the oasis at breakneck speed. He was pushing himself hard to beat me. He giggled and shouted a taunt at me but I didn’t hear it as I chased after him, laughing. It was nice to have a pleasant moment for once. I caught up to him and we were about twenty feet from the water’s edge when I tossed my backpack against a tree, pulling my shirt off and letting it fly off. I didn’t care at that point. I dived into the water, just in front of Iz. I swam around for a little bit, and let the loose fur that clung to its remaining brethren drift away. When we surfaced, Isaac splashed water in my face.

“Hey!” I called, treading water with my thick arms. I splashed water back at him and he gasped in surprise. With a playful growl, he jumped at me and pulled us both over. We surfaced and I swam over to the side of the water, Iz right on my tail. He grabbed onto it and I had to pull him along.

“Man, how much do you weigh?” I said, climbing out of the water.

“You weren’t complaining about my weight when you were carrying me,” he retorted.

“You were unconscious! And besides, that’s not nearly as bad as you thinking I was gonna die,” I slugged him in the arm as hard as I could and he stumbled back a little.

“I was unconscious? Fuck you! You were unconscious and you muttered something about purple tricycles.”

“They were breathing fire!” I gestured with my arms completely outstretched to my sides.

“Shut up,” Isaac said, taking the initiative once again and standing on his tiptoes to reach my lips. I grabbed his face and pulled his face to mine, letting out a soft noise as our lips met. I lifted him, holding his back as he wrapped his legs around my waist. We kissed for what felt like hours, not letting one another out of our grasp.

I pulled him down with me, my hands running down from his face, tracing the muscular six pack I could feel through the wet shirt. My hands got the bottom of the shirt and started pulling the shirt off, fighting the cloth that clung to his body.

I’d seen him naked before, and shirtless dozens of times but it was different this time. Before the accident, I would see him with a more judgmental eye, seeing spots on his chest or uneven patches of fur that would have been deemed unattractive. Now, though, I was seeing him through needy, lustful eyes. I saw every inch of his chest and I had never been more turned on before in my life. His body was perfect, with a firm stomach and a chest that wasn’t overly muscular for his build but made him look desirable. I had tried to hide for years this overwhelming attraction I felt for him but it was pointless to deny myself any further. I wanted him. I wanted to be with him. I wanted him safe more than anything else I could possibly imagine.

I held him by the butt of his pants which also clung tightly to his body. He moaned softly, eyes fluttering up to mine.

“J-jase,” he whispered. But I silenced him when I pushed my lips against his and we kissed once more. His lips were moist from the water, and though I was thirsty, I had another more important thirst to quench first, my thirst for him. My hands gradually moved down to the button of his pants. I fumbled with it for a minute before undoing it and pulling the zipper down.

I could feel heat radiate off his cheeks and onto mine as I exposed his boxers to the air. The water had a similar effect as the rest of his clothes, which clung to his body. I saw a faint outline of a feline member that was twitching. It occurred to me that neither of us had really had a chance to relieve ourselves in that manner since we arrived in the desert. As I looked down at his pleading eyes, I wanted him then. I was horny beyond belief and seeing his body like that, it made me more so.

I pulled my pants off as well as to even the playing field. When our lips met again, our bodies would grind and press together, teasing us both as each of us dived deeper into the feelings and instincts of the moment.

Before long, the last two layers of fabric separating us from total nudity. My lips started moving down. Each kiss let out a different kind of moan from his lips. A kiss on the neck rewarded me with a soft, girlish moan while a kiss on his chest left him whimpering. When I kissed his nipple he arched his back, pressing his crotch to my stomach. I grabbed his other nipple between my finger and thumb and was playing with it, teasing it while my sharp, canine teeth brushed across the one I was kissing.

“Jase!” he cried loudly, head thrown back in bliss.

* * *

Jase and I were relaxing in a shallow end of the pool. His body was leaning on mine, head on my chest as the two of us let the water relax. This one end of the pool had a hot spring that was hot enough to be pleasant without being damaging. This whole place seemed perfect. The sun was slowly setting in the western sky and Isaac yawned, warm air bristling the hairs on my chest as the exited his mouth.

“We should get to bed…” he said sleepily.

I got out of the pool and grabbed my clothes that were drying on a nearby rock. I handed him his clothes, taking peeks at him when he bent over to pull on his boxers. I put my own clothes on, tail still wagging from the events of the day.

When we were fully clothed, we went to the sleeping bags that we had laid down earlier in the day. But rather than use both, after I had gotten into mine, Isaac curled up with me, pressing his chest with mine and using my arm as a pillow. I smiled down at him and gave him a light kiss.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”