As we head back to the cave, I'm running through alternate plans, each one less impressive than the next. The latest one involves cutting our newfound bedding into strips and continually cutting off my hair until we have enough to braid a rope.
A glimpse at the rock face and a quick calculation lets me know it would take weeks of hair growth and many, many more blankets.
When we make it into the cave, it's lit with the muted light of the bioluminescent lamp.
The nurse in me is itching to reorganize and store the supplies we've been dumping unceremoniously in small piles. I'm too tired to complete a full inventory, but I grab the lamp and go around pulling out medical supplies.
While I do that, Thivoll grabs bedding and moves it into one of the two smaller rooms.
From the way he's purring as he makes a nest, I have a good idea of what he might have in mind.
I'm smiling at the thought when he turns to speak to me. "I think we should . . . What's that on your neck?"
I almost drop the lamp in my panic, but make myself put down what I'm holding before shooting my hands up to check for creatures.
A quick, frantic round of swiping reveals nothing.
"What?"
He walks over to me, his gait awkward on his back paws. He uses a hand to tip back my head and turns it to the side.
"Make your nanothread recede."
I raise an eyebrow at him, but do as he asks. It goes back to just being a black band around my waist.
His eyes rove over me, then he moves around to my back, pulling my hair off my neck and to the side. "Beautiful."
"What is it?"
He purrs. "You have black scales."
My heart leaps in my chest, and I hold a hand to my throat.
I can feel them now. They are more subtle than Thivoll's, closer to my skin, but the same shape. They start just under my jaw, sweep back into my hair, down to my collarbone and over my shoulders.
I look down.
They come to a point between my breasts, but don't cover them. They don't descend my arms, but I can't feel how far they extend behind me.
"Where do they end on my back?"
"Similar to my mane shape. They come to a point a few inches above your rear. Like they are pointing the way to bliss."
His last word ends in a purr, which intensifies when he takes a step closer to me.
He wraps one hand around my neck from behind, covering my new scales and keeping me in place as he runs the other hand along where my scales transition to smooth skin, teasing but not touching my breasts before he sweeps his hands over my shoulders and slowly glides his hand down my spine.
He keeps moving down, rubbing the globes of my ass, then dipping a finger into my already wet core. "Yes, it does in fact lead to bliss."
Instead of moving me to the nest he made, he keeps me in a chokehold as he continually runs his other hand up and down my back, occasionally rubbing on my clit or slowly pumping a finger in and out of me.
I'm panting by the time I feel his tail snaking up from my thigh, tickling across my belly and then reaching up to cup my breasts.
Its prehensile grip is like nothing I've felt before. The furred length of it wraps around one breast, squeezing it, and then I gasp as the scaled ovoid at the tip of it brushes against my taut nipple.
"Ready for me already, my Ree," he says as he pushes a second finger into me.
He pulls on my neck, making me bend forward. "Spread your legs."
