#ursidain

[wolven91]

Tasty Treat

If you want to get on the good side of an ursidain, cook for them. To say they are 'food motivated' was to describe the universe as 'mildly wide'.

Ursidains would eat a meal to mark your arrival at their home. They'd eat a meal to mark your first evening. They'd test which of you could lift the other, and if an ursidain can lift their guest: it is their job to feed the guest!

Breakfasts were huge affairs, the giant bear-like creatures adored the concept that humans had the saying; 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day'.

That oneoffhand comment from one human guest, complimenting the ursidain delegation, way back at the beginning?

Within one week, every ursidain majority world that had heard of humans, also knew this saying.

This alone was to firmly catapult humanity into the ursidain species', favourite species position.

So when Jonathan had first met with and stayed over at Garsh's home, he'd wanted to return the favour.

There was just one problem.

Ursidains, on average, reached thirteen feet in height.

As Jonathan stood there, glaring up at the cooker top while he could still hear the rumbling snore of Garsh in the other room, he had to come up with a plan on how to approach this.

==0==

Garsh woke shortly before she would have normally.

Her fist-sized leather nose scrunched up and wiggled in a tight circle. Her tongue, moments before lolling out of her mouth, returned to her wide maw whenever moistened it, licked her chops and nose, before sniffing.

Her eyes shot open.

Something smelled *delicious*.

Normally a ponderously slow creature, Garsh rolled out of bed with the speed of an apex predator, her mass rolling and sloshing as she padded out of the bedroom, following her nose.

"Oh you really shouldn't have d-*JONATHAN!!*" She bellowed, her mind lurching from looking forward to eating, to abject fear.

The human was stood on the cooker, with several utensils celotaped together so he could move and flip the crisped squidgit, all the while using a pot lid as a full body riot shield while the fatty meat spat and sizzled.

[r/WolvensStories]

[Ko-Fi]

[saberswordseabass]

A Hidden Danger; Know your threat (3.5)

Soldiers began to bolt down a dark metal grated floor. The sturdy, metallic walls creak from a minor gravity difference. One of the soldiers shouted something unintelligible to the recording unit. The wall to their right begins to creak louder and warp from stress.

Blast doors begin to lower, trapping the two soldiers in the corridor as the wall bulges like it was hit by a freight train. The soldiers begin to obviously shake as they lower their helmets over their elongated fox like faces. They raise their laser rifles and steady it at the wall bulging.

After another moment, the wall explodes inward, but no explosive decompression followed. A bulky fox robot with stark white, like star-bleached armor, forced its way through. Lasers streak and sizz in the air as the soldiers begin to pelt the robot.

It seemed unfazed by the lasers, only focusing on them when one managed to shoot it in the optic sensor. The graviton ram of its right arm, hissed as it prepared to operate once again, while it raised its left arm, its fingers arcing with a green energy. The bot begins to march towards them intently.

The graviton ram began to glow with a green field as it launched forward with a wet squelch from the soldiers before the video seems to freeze as the recording device manages to show a soldier in horrible mixture of fused into the wall and crushed under a powerful gravitational force.

"So what are you thinking for lunch? I really want to try this Philly cheesesteak that the captive mentioned." A Ursidain spoke, gently scratching their belly as their unruly clothes suggested pirates.

"Eh, doesn't sound awful. You might have t-" The Taurian companion began to state before a warning light began to flash rapidly.

A warning began to echo from the P.A. system; "Prepare to be boarded! Don't recognize the ship, but it is probably the human savior team from the GC. Give them hell!" The P.A. warned as a few moments later, the ship violently shuttered as the boarding vessel rammed them.

The two pirates were caught off guard and had been knocked into the left side wall. "What the hell is wrong with them? Are they insane?!" The Taurian screamed as they grabbed their weapon. Right as they finish that thought, the wall to their right melts like butter. An intimated robot in height, having to lean down to fight in the hallway designed for Ursidains.

"Command: Give up human now, and your lives may be spared." The bot ordered as its stark white armored glistened in the dull, flickering florescent light. It held two massive clamp hands, like originally designed to carry around the cargo pods, but they were paired with some kind of unknown weapon, but the armored canister attached to it suggested a flame based weapon.

The pirates look at each other as the bot stares unmoving at the two, waiting for a reply. The Ursidain nodded to his Taurian companion before unslinging an old earth shotgun and firing a shot into the bot's ribcage area. "Eat ferrus insect!" The Ursidain roared as the bot stumbled back, its inner working exposed from the 'insect'.

"Hostile action has been taken." The bot spoke as its wide footing managed to stabilize. The bot's orange, almost yellow eyes, begun to rapidly shift color to a cool, icy blue. Its arms raise out, and frost began to coat its flamethrower like barrels. An icy stream connects with both organics. The Ursidain looks relatively unharmed but still affected by the flash freezing of his outer layer of fur and fat. His Taurian companion was not as lucky as half of her right side crystallized from the ice-thrower's very napalm; 'Neptunic Nictro'

The Ursidain rushes to close the gap, firing two more shots into the bot, which finally knocks the bot down onto its back. With another shot to it's fox like head makes the machine go limp.

From this device's recording, the screen begins to get hit with many white particulars, giving the recording a grainy resolution. A much smaller bot began to step through the hole left by its bigger cousin. Their rifle, which was glowing blue from an unknown source. Upon readying the gun at the Ursidain, who noticed it too late, the camera grows more grainy. The camera cuts out as the Ursidain attempts to rush the smaller bot, and a split frame of a blue pulse wave echos from its gun.

A deep-seated anger began to fill room, as all recording on each screen paused at a gruesome death. A dull grey fur inquistor sat at a desk in front of the screens. "I've spent 70 years making sure Octarus does not awaken. It is a massive threat to not just us, but all of the GC, if allowed, to get fully operational... again." Gloved hands gently rub the inquistor's face. "And if word gets out that we are the cause, that could cause an end to us, not just as an empire but also a species if what the GC did to the majority of humanity is to be noted."

"Get me on the line with Quilx." The old inquistor spoke to his help, who rushes off, only to return a moment later. "What's wrong?" The older inquistor asks as a worried frown fills his graying brow.

"Sir, Quilx has made a ground expedition to the planet where he believes Octarus' forces have been coming from." That made the old inquistor shoot up, only to grip his chest with a pained expersion. His body was old and failing as he was reaching a century in his Inquisitoral duties.

The help rushed to him before he shooed them away with another pained grunt. "Quilx will die if he steps foot on that planet! Warn him immediately to change his course of operations." The old inquistor gasped as his body forced him back down onto his padded chair.

"Maker, why?" The old inquistor gasped quietly to himself as he stared into space with horror of first-hand experience.

Decided to try another approach to this. I hope you enjoyed it! C&C is very much welcome and appreciated! Again, thank @wolven91 for creating this amazing universe to allow me to create this weird word soup :>

[wolven91]

Backyard Grill

The ursidain's mighty stomach growled in frustration.

Jimbas or 'Jim', to his human colleague, was starving! Jim liked being called Jim, it meant he was accepted by a human and acceptance by a human meant he got certain benefits. The giant creature's stomach protested again, as if saying 'where's the rest?!'. He wasn't actually starving. Oh sure, the ursidain known as Jim got what was required from the ship canteen each day in the form of three flat meals that totalled the calorie content that his kind needed to maintain themselves, but by the deep forest, in his opinion this stuff would barely fed a sparrow! Jim stroked a broad tongue over the long-emptied plate. If he closed his eyes, he could still taste the meal.

Jim's look of misery was removed when he opened his big brown, but sad eyes and saw Uncle Rich walking up.

Uncle Rich was a human and was neither Jimbas's uncle, nor, to Jim's knowledge, was the uncle to any of the other aliens aboard the Community ship. But nonetheless, everyone called him their 'uncle'. As a guest and part of the 'Guardian Initiative' program, Jimbas was assigned to Uncle Rich so he had a partner through all this and a mentor to learn from. Jimbas honestly had found he had learnt more from Uncle Rich than he suspected Uncle Rich had from him. The ursidain now knew how to open a bottle of 'beer' with another bottle of 'beer' now.

Uncle Rich had been more than welcoming and had ensured Jim that the human was grateful for the guardian's assistance. Not that it seemed it was needed, without exception the human had taken to the stars with ease and a warm smile.  Even when meeting the other races, in most cases he'd been openly welcoming.

There was a bit of a culture clash, his eating habits and what he considered appropriate with regards to weight. To an Ursidain, it was important to keep a high body fat percentage or at least enough muscle to keep the pounds on. It was a mark of success and of readiness of the person. A very common saying amongst the 'bear people' as his human colleague would often call them, was "I'll survive the winter." It meant you were ready and in the best shape you could be.

The human, in contrast, actively avoided taking second helpings. Even when he gave the ursidain serving a wink and a smile, he would decline two ladles of food rather than the assigned one each. It was odd, so very very odd. But when Jim had asked Uncle Rich if he didn't enjoy eating, the human laughed! He gave the far larger alien a knowing look, an elbow to the gut and promised that he'd see what 'good eating' was soon.

Jim was very confused that day. Today however, Uncle Rich had a pep in his step and practically ran to Jim's table before skidding to a stop, with a wide knowing grin.

"Good news! We'll be planet side in the next few hours!"

"That is good news!" Jim paused, scratched a meaty paw against his skull has he thought, before adding; "Why is that good news?"

"My folks have already got everything prepared and are camped out in a field as we speak. We've got permission take the skiff and land almost on top of them." The jolly human declared in a whisper so that no one around could hear them. There was a moment as Jimbas turned that statement over in his head. It didn't make sense. His folks? Other humans?!

Jim looked him over once more; the rough grey fur that sprouted from his chin and head gave him a 'wise' air. Uncle Rich was well respected and often took on the task of resolving personal issues between the crew long before they made their way into the chain of command. It didn't make sense, but starving or not, meeting other humans would be a pleasure and an honour!

"Mmrf... I'll be glad to have dirt under my claws again Uncle, the grating The Galactic Community enjoys on their ships is all well and good for easy repairs, but it's hell on the feet." Jim said, pressing a thick thumb into the black pads of his lower paws. Jim's stomach growled again loudly.

"Ah! I'm glad to hear you're hungry, are you going to make it another hour or two?" Uncle Rich asked with a slap against the pelt on Jimbas's back.

"Mm, it'll be touch and go, but I will do my best friend." Jim replied as he stood, his rotund belly 'popping' clear of the bench he was sat at.

At twelve feet tall, Jimbas towered over his 'Uncle', and with his body's mass, outweighed him by several degrees, but he still felt a deep connection with the human. If this was something that the other humans felt, he understood why they would consider him their 'uncle'. He would make a fine ursidain... if he put on a few pounds.

Hours later, when Jim stepped off the Skiff's ramp he sighed as he felt the dirt compress under him and rise up between his claws. The ursidain flexed his toes with his eyes closed and sighed with content. The breeze carried the smell of meats Jimbas didn't recognise, they were cooking and smelt delicious.

His stomach reminded him of its existence. The huge creature felt a light backhanded swat against the side of his belly from Uncle Rich who strolled past laughing. It took a moment for the ripples across his flab to settle down even with his paws held against himself.

"Common then! I want to show you a 'proper' meal!" Called the human who was being tackled by other humans. The ursidain allowed a subtle eye roll to the human's back, like a human would know a 'proper' meal.

Jimbas expected to be sorely disappointed by the size of everything. He made a point to only nibble, he didn't want to be rude to the humans. The ursidain doubted that even a family of humans could create enough food to satisfy a fully grown ursid-.

His thoughts derailed as he truly focused on the small crowd of similar looking humans. 

They had several coolers opened and a grill larger than some of the fully installed kitchen units Jim had seen in his time amongst the stars. The coolers were near-overflowing with raw meat of various shapes, colours and sorts. The grill was practically groaning under the weight of the meat that was sizzling away on the bars. 

And the smell.

Oh the smell! 

"Hey! Hey! Jim! Ya' drooled on me! God.." Uncle Rich bemoaned, wiping at his shoulder which now sported a dark wet line down his chest, he stomped off towards the family who, on noticing his shirt, began laughing and calling the giant bear over. 

Jimbas was 'subjected' to the first challenge for his stomach that he'd experienced since leaving his home planet. He ended up sat next to an extremely old human who seemed to believe he was looking 'thin' despite never having met the woman before this day. His plate was piled high while the rest of the family tucked into their own meals. 

When he finally saw his plate once more, it was snatched away, refilled and returned with neary a question. 

Eventually a younger member of the extended family, currently nibbling on a sausage skewed on the end of a fork, explained. 

"Uncle Rich sent us a message last month; said you were always hungry. Grandma took that as a challenge."

Every steak, every sausage, every burger, breast and thigh, made the ursidain's jowls drool as a never-ending torrent. He first tried to eat slowly, but the spices, the sauce rubs and salts that were liberally applied left him desperate for another bite, again and again. 

It was evening by the time the bear had to hold up a paw in defeat.

"Please... I beg of.. Mercy." He deferred his pleading to the old crone of the table, who allowed a slight smile to tug at the edge of her mouth. 

Jimbas eventually found himself belching to the delight of the children, flat on his back. The echoes of his powerful expulsion of air caused ripples of the glowing insects to dance up around them. He had to admit discomfort from the children that sat upon his overstuffed belly. Not once in his life had he been overfed before...

An unforeseen outcome occurred thanks to this event. 

Shortly after returning to the ship, Jimbas met up with an ursidain ship, his old ship and crew! His extra inches that were added to his waistline were immediately noted by his 'former' crew. News travelled quickly back to ursidain territories, all the way back to the capital world; Source.

The ursidains had learnt that humans could cook. The race was on, to find more humans!

[wolven91]

Snaccident

The light clicked on, illuminating the kitchen in the dead of night. 

The creature that still stood, brazenly, in the middle of the kitchen floor paused, freezing in place thanks to its deep rooted instincts to remain still enough to not be noticed. The fact that it still had stolen food halfway stuffed into its mouth did not go unnoticed by the ursidain that stood, still with her paw over the kitchen light switch, also still as a statue as the two creatures waited to see what the other would do.

The ursidain didn’t want to spook the smaller creature. 

The human wasn’t thinking, its brain was attempting to figure out how to explain why she had been caught with her hand, metaphorically, in the cookie jar.

“What are you doing?” Asked Tihan blankly. 

Charlotte swallowed the chunk of the sandwich that was only half chewed in a panicked attempt to reply. 

Her resulting choking and coughing fit was arrested by the ursidain grabbing a bottle of water from the cool storage and passing it, opened, to the human. It was the middle of the night, she had woken to investigate the quiet, but persistent, noises coming from her kitchen. When she found her human ward eating, she had assumed it was sleepwalking, and had mentally prepared to deal with that, now she didn’t quite comprehend what the human was doing. 

“I wanted a midnight snack.” Charlotte explained nonchalantly.

Tihan’s brain stalled. Like trying to speed away from a traffic light in the wrong gear.

She’d heard all those words before, but never in that order or in this context. 

“What do you mean a ‘midnight snack’? It’s… nighttime…?” She confusedly asked, her face screwing up as she tried to fit the square peg of an idea into the round hole of her brain. 

The human smiled, hopped up onto her kitchen booster… er… stool, Charlotte hated it when Tihan called it her booster to reach her higher kitchen counters. In front of her was an opened bread bag, a buttered knife and an open jar of fruit preservative. 

“I woke up, couldn’t get back to sleep and had a snaccident.” 

Again. It was like she’d unleashed a flashbang of words inside the ursidain’s skull.

The human was gesturing at the evidence of her sandwich making, picked up the second half of her sandwich and offered it to the dumbfounded ursidain. She gently plucked it from her hand and put the tiny human sized sandwich half in her mouth. It disappeared without ceremony. 

“So you just… woke up to eat?”

“Yup. Sometimes I can’t get to sleep until I get something. I’ve had to join a gym in the past when I got insomnia for a time.” She explained idly as she wiped the loose crumbs into her hand and into the open bin to her side. 

Within the ursidain’s brain, a synapse connected with another, in a manner that hadn't happened for several decades. 

“You can… snack… at night…?”

“It’s not good for you, your metabolism is slowed so you’ll put on weight they say.” The woman laughed as she realised and pointed at her. “Don’t you folk like that though?”

The woman in front of her held a paw to her forehead as the implications washed over her. 

How had she never thought about this before!? 

She looked up at the human woman as she slowly chewed the other half of the sandwich whilst looking at the ursidain with a confused and concerned look. Tihan stepped closer to her, looking blankly between her and the still opened bread bag. The ursidain reached over, pulled two slices out, her claws dimpling the soft foodstuff as she plucked the knife up. Buttering both slices, she placed the two together, raised it to her mouth and ate it without issue, testing the concept whilst glancing at the clock.

“You okay?” The human asked.

“I never… It never occurred to me that I could eat in the middle of the night… It’s nighttime… you sleep… not eat…” She idly explained looking at the breadbag.

She reached to make another. 

“Really? You’ve never got the munchies before?”

“Yes, but… you wait until morning?”

“Well.. this is your stuff, what stops you?”

“Nothing… nothing can stop me. Nothing at all…”

She had a grin on her face as she made another. 

Charlotte left her to it and went to bed, she slowly drifted away, but never heard the ursidain leave the kitchen, all the human heard was the knife periodically being placed back down on the counter. 

In the morning, the two of them returned to work. It was not lost to Charlotte that some of the kitchen cupboards had been left ajar and with a curious peek, confirmed the cupboards were now completely bare. 

The human also noticed that she gained a shadow in the form of Tihan who, far beyond what was normal, followed her everywhere during the day, barely allowing the human out of her sight for more than a few moments. 

But it wasn’t until the following month, that Charlotte realised that Tihan was subjected to being the centre of a rumour mill. 

Over the last four weeks, Tihan had successfully and rather proudly put on several inches around her waist and had to reapply for clothing measuring. None of the other ursidian could work out when she had the time to put on so much weight in such a short amount of time. Charlotte herself had been cornered more than once to be asked what she specifically was doing to help the ursidain. 

The human tried to explain that she wasn’t doing anything, but it was only when the offending ursidain realised that they were intimidating the human that they backed off. Charlotte had been honest; Tihan hadn’t been locking herself away in her free time, nor was she eating anything different during breakfast, lunch or dinner time beyond the ordinary. 

And yet, to their perspective; she grew, much to the overwhelming envy of her peers. 

When Charlotte asked one of her colleagues why it was such a concern, they corrected her; it wasn’t concern, it was envy. Thanks to her mass, Tihan would be considered extremely successful at a glance, she’d be first considered for upward mobility in her career on just appearance alone. 

“But you’re all huge already!” The human exclaimed, looking up at the rotund space bear, all of them easily twice her height with either the jigging belly or strongman or rather ’bear’ muscles to match! 

“Well it’s sweet of you to say so honey, but obviously I can get bigger if she can!”

The alien put her hands on her hips and looked determinedly over to Tihan, who was handling a particularly abrasive geckin. 

“I mean.. All she’s been doing is having midnight snacks.” Charlotte explained idly as she looked over to her roommate. She wouldn’t be a bad manager if her new waist was going to help in that regard… 

“..she’s what?” Asked the alien next to the human.

“Midnight snacks? You know? Munchies after dark?” Replied Charlotte, turning to look back and suddenly noticed the group’s expressions.

The ursidains genuinely looked as if she’d slapped them multiple times as she blinked down at the smaller human. One of the aliens bent over, reached out to grasp her shoulders before asking, very quietly. 

“She’s eating… at night? After Dinner?”

“Well… yeah? Dinner… Supper… Midnight Snack? You guys really don’t think about eating after you go to bed?”

The giant ursidain blinked at her as unused gears between her ears began to turn. With a glance to Tihan, and back to her, the other ursidain gently released her and sounded distracted.

“It… never occurred to me…” She murmured before walking away.

In the following twenty four hours, across the station, the ursidains descended upon the various corner shops that usually simply provide basic foodstuffs to take home in the event one didn’t want to go to the station’s cafeteria and bought nearly every edible item that could be taken away.

Ursidains in the system soon began to visit the station to investigate why the bears on this particular station were becoming larger all at once…

[wolven91]

Sleepy Human

Tess had just finished a never before seen, fifty-hour shift.

It wasn't meant to have been a fifty-hour shift, but after a previously unrecorded hunk of rock flew past and the resulting micro-meteor shower peppered the station, it was all hands-on deck. As the only human and 'small specie' aboard, Tess had chosen to be willing to go that extra mile, to prove what humans can do. One of the benefits to being one of the smaller races, meant humans could crawl or squeeze themselves into spaces where a tiny hole might be slowly venting the atmosphere into the void that the larger races simply couldn't get to without uninstalling an entire room's worth of equipment.

It had been four years since what was now known as the Sol-3 Incident, only humans called it Earth and even then, only when talking to close friends or family.

But the danger was past. The holes were plugged, and it was done. The station was reading 'All Clear' and no areas were showing any further signs of lost integrity anymore.

Tess was leaning over the back of a chair when she heard the good news from Central Control over the speakers. The human gave an exhausted choking laugh at the miracle that was getting the 'job' done. A great weight was added to her eyelids.

The other engineers likewise were glad it was complete and made no secret of their praise for the woman each praising her in turn. They and their colleagues had no reason to run themselves ragged as she did; they had entire teams ready to 'tap them out' when their shift was done so the 'on' team could remain at top form. It was only Tess who had been awake for so long thanks to her size.

An ursidain came over, the lead Engineer; she was all smiles to let Tess know she was good to go. But upon clapping a hubcap sized paw against her back, the woman collapsed down the back of the chair. Her knees had buckled as the dark circles beneath her eyes told her tale without a single word.

"Aww, damn. Come on kid, let's get you to bed." The lead engineer said as the human stood back up.

Or tried to.

She got herself onto one knee before pushing up on herself, but one her legs had just decided that she was no longer allowed to use it properly.

"Just.. hah.. Just leave me here boss. Just let me have five minutes and I'll head home." Tess panted out, exhausted as she was, flopping back onto her ass against the metal grating of engineering.

"And let you messy up my engineering bay? Oh no, you're getting home and getting sleep. Come here!" She began her sentence with a serious, admonishing tone before switching to a more jovial one. She reached down, slipped a clawed paw under one of her arm pits, then the other, before hauling the human bodily up onto herself.

Tess, whilst the smallest engineer, was not a small woman. Her arms were thick, her chest broad and muscled, all thanks to her years working hard within the engineering sector. This was all unnoticed by the giant space-bear. The lead engineer's strength far greater than what was needed to hoist the human with such ease she didn't even grunt. Humans barely came up to an ursidain's hip, so the effort was minimal on the larger alien's part.

Her arms flopped over the alien's shoulders as the human's head landed against the fur and soft meat of her shoulder as limp was a puppet with its strings cut..

"I don't.. I'm not a babe that needs to. needs to." The woman protested her position, but was lost to sleep moments later.

The giant ursidain made steps towards the exit while holding one paw over the smaller middle-aged human to hold her in place as she moved. She knew where she lived and could drop her off with ease.

As she reached the engineering exit however, she was stopped.

"Boss! They're saying that the scrubbers are working overtime! You're the only one with clearance to escort the other engineers!"

She felt a joint in her jaw 'pop' as she gritted her teeth. This couldn't wait.

"Right! Lets go now, it can't wait." She whispered carefully at her subordinate, who at first had a confused look before glancing down at the human that had passed out completely.

What followed was eight hours of non-stop metaphorical firefighting that the lead engineer had to navigate while holding the 'hero' human to her chest. On several occasions she had to transfer 'ownership' of the woman to other crew members while she handled business, but would immediately demand the human back once she was free to take her once more.

On the rare occasions she would stir, the lead engineer caught herself rubbing her back, gently rocking her up and down while 'shushing' her.

She was sure the human wouldn't appreciate it if she was conscious, but it worked and she remained blissfully unaware.

And if it works then it's good enough.

It was only towards the end of her shift that she finally found time to actually take Tess back to her home. On overriding her door lock and an attempt to get her into bed, not only did the woman refuse to rouse at first, her arms had locked around the ursidain's neck.

Too tired to really care, she climbed onto the small human bed, breaking it completely with her literal ton weight, and laid down with her still holding herself against the alien's fur. She ran a paw over her back and began to drift away herself with little issue as her own long day took its own toll on her.

[wolven91]

The Ceremony

As the ursidain leant in, claws filled with sharp implements and teeth bared in concentration, James lifted his chin, defiant of the nerves that threatened him. He willed himself still, despite his fear. 

Her hands reached for the material that covered the man and stabbed a sliver of metal through it. It was sharpened shard and as long as his finger, although thinner. It seemed impossible for her to be so dexterous with such massive paws around such a tiny device. The man’s eyes snapped to the side as the archway that led to the room they were in rattled as the curtain made of beads and polished stones hissed and cascaded. It reminded the human of heavy rain. 

“He looks pretty good! After what you said, I was worried you weren’t going to be able to get him ready in time!” Declared the newcomer in a jovial tone before joining the former lone occupants of the room. He joined the pair and settled his own paws against his double wide hips, wearing a carefree grin as he leant back and observed the human from above. Appraising her work.

The seamstress leant back onto her stool, her mighty paws on her knees. She wore elegant blues and turquoise. The robes that flowed off her stopped at her shoulders and fitted her rotund form closely, allowing her to move unimpeded as she had been, slowly moving around James as the sun crept across the sky through the window. She had spent the last hour putting finishing touches to the robe that now covered him. 

It was a facsimile to the one that covered the newcomer, Hensra. 

James had saved Hensra’s life only days before. His fear had been forced aside by bravery for a mere scant few moments, but it was enough to prevent the ursidain from meeting his end. 

That was why James was here. 

On Source, the ursidain homeworld. 

Why he was being fitted for a ceremonial robe by the clan leader’s personal seamstress. 

All as a reward for his bravery in saving the only son of the current clan lord. Above as the clan leader was above all other clans. 

“When you said you needed a rush order for a new member, I expected someone…” She glanced at James’s face, “Larger.” James said nothing. 

“Hey. He’s big where it counts.” Declared the male, hitting his own chest with a fist. “He looks good though.” Hensra complemented, gesturing at the red and black robes that fitted James perfectly. The seamstress reached forward and for a moment her hands and wrists blocked out the world either side of James’s head. Then her fingers pinched the hood that hung around James’s shoulders and brought it up and over. 

It hung low, covering the man’s head all the way down to his eyebrows. He could see the two ursidains, at least their knees. 

“Of course he does. I made this. Is everything prepared for tonight?” Sniffed the seamstress, seemingly satisfied with her work.

“Yeah, I just need to tell our friend James here, how it's going to go.” Replied Hensra calmly. 

It was only when the seamstress twisted at the hip as she stood to openly stare at Hensra that James realised that this was not something that should have been left until now. . 

“You haven’t told him? This is happening this evening, Hensra.” The older woman pointed out with an incredulous tone. Almost admonishing what was essentially a prince. 

“He’s brave. It’ll be fine.” Dismissed the large male with a wave of his paw.

“Fool!” Snapped the older lady. “How you came from your father’s loins is beyond me. Every year I am yet more certain that he found a particularly talkative rock and named it ‘Hensra’.” The seamstress declared with blatantly no fear of punishment for such brazen insults. She picked up her equipment and packed it away in haste. The male gave the human a shrug but said nothing as she tidied rapidly. 

Before she left though, as a silhouette in the open archway, the tall female turned back. Her eyes shone the sunlight that was filtering into the room back at James. The gleam in the dark. A predator’s eyes. Something buried deep within James’s evolution cried out in fear. Fear of the cave bear. Hunter of man. 

“He may be a fool, but the boy speaks only truths for as long as I’ve had the displeasure of dressing him. Listen to his instructions. Obey them. Be brave. Good luck James of Earth.” And with that, and a rattle of beads, she was gone. 

James felt doubt replace her as a presence in the room. 

“Right.” Hensra started, clapping his great paws together. “Let's talk about tonight…”

== 0 ==

The veil of the darkness of night had settled across the plains and the giant rocky cliff faces that stood in front of them. Only the moonlight illuminated the path. The five figures stood in the dark at the very mouth of a valley. At the end of the valley, at the top of the hill, was a bright bonfire that burnt steadily, licking at the vertical cavern walls. It cast strange shadows that played with the eyes. 

Sparks rose in the distance, disappearing into the sky. This was the premier clan’s ancestral grounds. Were tradition demanded they respect the old ways. 

From James’s position, as he watched the sparks, he noticed the three moons of Source had aligned perfectly over the bonfire and the crowd that were at the top of the hill. The three sisters were why this ceremony had to happen so soon. 

A pair of horns, placed on the very top at the cliff edge on either side of the valley entrance declared the beginning of the event. Even from all the way down at the bottom of the valley,; James could see how big the horns were. He watched as dark shapes, ursidains, approached, reached up and began a single mighty and long sound through the horns. Both were strong and sure, perfectly in time with one another. The sound echoed through the valley, but also out into the plains at the five robed figure’s backs. 

It declared the beginning of the ceremony. 

“Here we go. Translators out.” Whispered the familiar voice of Hensra, robed as James was. Hensra was at the head of the convoy of four robed ursidains and one robed human who was second to last in line. He would lead the way. James dug the translator bead from his ear and slipped it into a pouch on the inside of his robes. 

A powerful voice shouted and called out from the top of the valley. An ursidain and one with a voice so loud and clear James heard every word. It was clearly a declaration of some kind, not an invitation or question. 

“Aaaah! Dree! Dah! Kai! Sky! Vah!” James had no clue what the words meant, but the three ursidains ahead of him began walking towards the bonfire and the one that shouted. 

The five robed figures began their ascent of the valley. Drums began, marking their approach. A steady beat that almost matched James’s heart as it drummed within his chest. As it echoed down towards them, James noted it was a staccato beat. 

James recalled what Hensra had explained to him as they walked. 

*”First, we’ll ascend the valley to the ancestral clan grounds. We can’t talk once we start. Throughout all of this, you’re not expected to speak or respond.”*

James nervously smiled under the deep hood as he kept pace with the larger creatures. A walk for them meant a quick paced march or even a mild jog for him. Whether they were taking their time for him, the human wouldn’t know, but he made sure to keep up. Wind blew in from the plains behind them and played with the heavy hems of their robes. James barely felt it.

In James’s nerves, and concentration not to put a foot wrong as he walked up the hill, the man barely even realised how quickly they made their way up the path. Within what seemed like moments, they had already approached the edges of the ‘camp’. 

A wall of fur and broad shoulders prevented the five robed figures from progressing further. Unphased, Hensra walked forwards without hesitation until at the very last moment, as James expected him to slam into the back of the ursidain, the ursidains who had their back to the newcomers parted. 

A path appeared almost instantly. 

A low rumbling chant began. Every single ursidain held the beat with the drums, a short word for each thud.  

“He Ooh Gos Ran Dun Niu Yeh Petro Hes Manus Laga Sota Lah.”

James kept his head low as Hensra had told him to. 

*”When we get to the bonfire, we line up and present ourselves to the leaders.”*

James took his spot next to the other robed ursidain. A fugitive glance from beneath his hood showed him how to stand. The other robed figures had their shoulders back, chin parallel to the ground. James matched them as the crowd continued to chant, only now a low grumble had appeared beneath the words as a rumbling growl. 

The crowd on the other side of the fire were all staring, all chanting, their eyes gleaming in the dark. As the human watched, it appeared that as the ursidains across from him finished a line in the chant, in turn they would draw out the final words into animalistic howls, craning their heads back and ultimately roaring, growling or outright screaming into the sky. 

Three of the largest ursidains James had ever seen, were stood directly between the fire and the five robed figures as they waited in a row. James tried to remember what was next. 

*”First, the test of nerve. He’ll try to intimidate you. You can flinch at any point after this, but not to him.”*

One of the shadows stomped forwards and James steeled himself, expecting something loud or sudden. He was right and wise to have done so as the ursidain roared and snarled and bellow at someone further down the line, what James assumed was their face. 

It wasn’t long before it was James’s turn. His hood was torn from his head, but James remained still. 

*”He can’t touch you. It’s just bravado.”*

“HUURGH! GARREE DARINMURAH!” Roared a maw full of teeth and spittle, scant centimetres away from the human’s face. James willed himself to remain still and calm. He was rock, and would allow the water to merely flow over him. 

With that, the roaring face was gone, shouting at the next and final in line.

The first shadow that had done the shouting disappeared into the crowd, hidden instantly amongst the shadows and flickering lights given off by the fire. 

The second silhouette approached. 

*”Next is the taste of character… Trust in her… She decides whether this is successful or not.”*

She raised her hand into the air, a glint of steel flashed before she brought her hand down in a swift strike that left James’s sight. He heard and felt the ‘thud’ of flesh on flesh at high speeds as well as a grunt by Hensra.

The figure did the same action two more times, before a huge belly appeared in James’s vision. He tilted his head back to meet the new ursidain’s eyes. A female by the looks of it. On her hand, capping her first finger, was a metal spike, like a weaponised thimble. If she hit him with that, not only would James go flying, the spike would definitely go deeper, into more important things than if he were an ursidain with literal inches of blubber. 

The ursidain raised her hand as before. 

For lack of a better idea, James tensed, grit his teeth an set his jaw and held his shoulders back. He’d come this far, he would not be found wanting now. 

Something struck James in the pec. It was solid hit, like a cricket ball striking him. He grunted, but otherwise blinked in shock. She had pulled her punch!

James glanced back up at her, only to see a single red droplet, gleaming in the firelight. The ursidain touched it to her tongue, before nodding and repeating the process with the fifth and final ursidain.

With that, she too melted into the crowd. 

Which suddenly went silent, with the exception of those that were growling or howling. They finished in their own time until all the remained was the crackling of the bonfire and the howling of a distant wind. 

“Whoooar! Tami Ro Mara!” Bellowed the hits and final ursidain, framed by the flames. He was by far and away, the largest, tallest ursidain that James had ever seen; even on a planet of them. He held his arms up in a declaration, one that James had no clue of what it meant. 

Whether it was positive, or negative? He might have declared them blood brothers or announced they were to be eaten and the human wouldn’t have had a clue without the translators. 

The titan shouted again to the crowd, his arms still up and turning so all could see and hear him.

“Whoooar! Tami Ro Mara!” 

This was an unseen trigger as the entire crowd erupted in their own cheers, starling James until he flinched at the sheer wall of noise that battered him from all sides. All seriousness was lost, the robed ursidains tore their hoods from their heads and joined in with the shouts, jumping in place and hurling themselves around. 

For a brief moment, James feared for his safety as titanic bodies, easily twice his size, threw themselves chaotically in their mad joy. That was until a strong hand grabbed the back of James’s robe and hauled him clear of the floor. 

It was Hensra, who merely dropped James onto his broad shoulders, he grinned from ear to ear and spoke.

“Glyow weese? Ou bes Woul.” 

One of his paws reached up and tapped the pouch that contained James’s connection to the rest of the aliens. He quickly fitted them into place where they suctioned securely. 

“You’re one of us now!” Hensra declared, still grinning up at the human.

“You said you’d explain it afterwards, what do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re a clan brother now. You’re an ursidain!”

[r/WolvensStories]

[AO3]

[Ko-Fi]

[wolven91]

Dominance

Eddie threw a punch into the exposed ribs of the vulptanis who immediately winced and stumbled back several steps.

That didn't dissuade the taurians from stomping forwards and shoving the man forcefully backwards. Eddie lost his footing and bit his tongue as the human stumbled over something in the alley and fell to the floor.

The muck stained his jumpsuit, and his pride took a hit, but otherwise he was fine. Shuffling backwards, away from the hooves that could shatter bones with a mere kick or stomp, Eddie found himself in the deepest, darkest part of the alley, with no escape past the three assailants.

They'd made their displeasure clear that he existed. That he didn't deserved to be on *their* station, nor did he have the right to wear the engineering colours. It didn't matter that he passed the tests and they didn't; to them it was impossible a lesser lifeforms could have been smarter than them.

His back, literally against the wall, Eddie couldn't think of any other option than fighting. The taurian was huge, the vulptanis had claws that, whilst not as sharp as the taurian’s, could still do damage and the shorter canid merely looked on from the rear with a sadistic grin.

Eddie reached for his toolbelt, it wasn't much but his screwdriver could at least cause damage, perhaps enough to make this too dangerous for them.

Fumbling, Eddie briefly glanced down to unlatch the holster. Looking back up, the taurian had gotten closer, but the light of the alleyway had significantly darkened.

A forth figure had appeared in the mouth of the space.

Eddie glanced past the towering taurian, only to watch as the giant shadow, blatantly an ursidain, reach out to encapsulate the canid's entire head in one paw, only then to draw their arm back, dragging the canid with them, before slamming the canid's skull into the wall with such force; dust and plaster fell from above.

It was enough to cause the other two thugs to look back, only to see the canid crumple to the floor, unmoving.

The taurian lowed and immediately lowered her head and rushed towards the ursidain, fully intending on goring Eddie's saviour.

The vulptanis threw themselves bodily to the side as their former companion charged with full intention of going *through* them. The taurian missed the vulptanis, but was aimed dead centre on the ursidain's gut to puncture them with the two elegantly curved horns atop their head.

The ursidain however, merely reached out and grabbed the horns with their hands. The taurian’s whole body crumpled like an accordion at the sudden stop only to be lifted into the air. The ursidain held the taurian up for a brief moment, a snarl imprinted across their face before slapping the taurian back down against the ground with another bone crumpling 'crunch'.

Not releasing the horns the ursidain merely picked the taurian up again and twisted their body to the side, sending the limp alien into a wall where she fell on top of the still prone canid and remained still.

The vulptanis drew a small device from.the back of their own belt. Eddie was versed in weapons of the Galactic Community, but it didn't take eons of pattern recognition to know what a gun was. The orange and white furred alien held it in two hands and wore a cruel grin.

"Look out!!" He bellowed at his saviour as the vulptanis pulled the trigger.

There was a flash and the air in the cramped alley way heated up by a notable amount. Blinking the dazzling line out of his vision, Eddie saw that the ursidain was unphased by the shot and merely.stomped over to the vulp before reaching out and grabbing the gun and both hands of the vulptanis in one of theirs.

There was a muffled 'fizz' and light bloomed from the enclosed fist of the ursidain as the vulptanis pulled the trigger again. The vulp flinched and cried out, whereas the ursidain didn't so much as blink.

They just stared down at the vulptanis with a look of pure distaste and revulsion. As if the vulp was a piece of soggy food that hand gotten stuck on the ursidain's fingers.

Eddie's saviour then closed their fist, slowly.

The vulptanis squeaked and cried out, squirming in place, trying to pull free as their hands were crushed in the iron grip of the ursidain.

Then the gun exploded.

There was another flash and a muffled 'pop' before the vulptanis screeched while their legs buckled and was only held up by the ursidain's single paw.

They let go and the bloody mess of a fireworks being held too long was revealed. The ursidain's hand however, was merely scorched as if covered in soot.

The vulptanis mewed as they fell to the floor holding ruined fingers and broken hands out as if they couldn't quite believe what had happened to them.

"Let's get you out of here." Declared the ursidain to Eddie, stepping forward and blocking his entire view of the carnage of the alleyway.

The ursidain was female, the elegant robe she wore revealed a chest that left no doubt in Eddie's mind. Her pelt was white as fresh snow with black accents around her features, eyes, nose and mouth.

A paw twice the size of a dinnerplate landed on Eddie's shoulder and pulled him up and against the ursidain's hip. Her great steps were fsr larger than his own, but the way he was held had him semi-lifted from the floor and he needn't have worried about keeping pace.

They past the three gently moaning aliens and back into the safety of the streets of the station where the pair walked several blocks away from the carnage.

"I'm Tarsha, I'm going to give you my contact. I work private security normally, but I'm between contracts right now. If you need it, I'll walk you to and from your work until anyone else with the same idea gets wind of what happens when they mess with you. Deal?"

The giant polar bear spoke as if Eddie hiring her was already a done deal and stuttered over his words, scrambling for the correct thing to say.

"Look cutie, I'm not taking no. Those chumps aren't alone in their opinion. Just nod your head for me so I can sleep at night and not worry you're getting jumped."

Despite wanting to question it, Eddie watched from above his body as his head nodded at Tarsha.

A huge curved claw gently touched just under his chin in approval as Tarsha replied;

"Good boy. Now where do you live? Wanted to get you home..."

[r/WolvensStories]

[AO3]

[Ko-Fi]

[wolven91]

Human Guardian - One Size Fits All

Jon's radio crackled to life on his hip.

"Jon, can you get across to the 'Emmalis' sector please. We have an urgent escort request." Came dispatch's dispassionate and clinical tone.

The human grunted as he lifted with his knees to put the box that he was running inventory on, back onto the shelf where it belonged. With it safely secured he grabbed for the radio and thumbed the button for him to speak.

"Jon confirms, heading to Emmalis now."

"Acknowledged" Came the immediate reply.

He returned the radio to his hip and began a swift march to the part of the station which hosted the shorter alien delegates. It had been a busy week, it felt like every race had turned up all at once and realistically it wasn't far off the mark to say that. It was the first time since the circus when Jon had first passed the Guardian Initiative selection process that it had been this busy.

Apparently there was a summit of some kind coming up and with the impressive range of creatures appearing on station, both great and small, Jon ,like his colleagues was being run ragged. Most Guardian work wasn't actually being dedicated to a single person. At least, not for a Guardian who stayed on one station. Jon's role was to just being a helpful, welcoming presence. If there was a job to do that helped the station, he was there for it.

He smiled, nodded, waved or gave short cheerful banter to the other aliens he passed on his way. Most wore the similar blue and yellow jumpsuits of Guardians, or the grey and white of maintenance. These corridors being off limits to other creatures that weren't part of the station's staff. Plenty of vulnerable points in these sections, unwise to let crowds of people into the access corridors.

The access corridors ran to every corner of the station, regardless of who's sector it was or which race occupied those quarters. Staff would always be able to reach a delegate or guest in rapid time compared to those who had to use the more formal and fancy public walkways. The warren of tunnels weren't a secret, but like the 'Disneyland' of old, they weren't readily acknowledged by station as a whole. It was easier to just be as unobtrusive as one could be while playing host to the other races.

As Jon reached the 'Emmalis' sector, the half of the station that hosted much smaller races than the majority, he slipped on his 'Escort Harness' and showed his security card to the reader.

As he waited for approval and when his harness secured, he grabbed at his radio and thumbed the button again.

"Jon at Emmalis Sector, Subdoor 'Itty bitty'."

"Acknowledged. Stop calling it 'Itty Bitty', it's the 'Ikit Bitaris' entrance." Came a different voice from the radio, but none-the-less as formal as the last.

The light flicked from red to green and the bulkhead's bolt snapped open allowing Jon to walk through the door and into the 'airlock' checkpoint. A glass booth with a canid guard sat at a desk gave him a courtesy glance before allowing him to step forward.

"Mornin' Jon." The guard drawled. "You got a delegate needing to get to the council room early, 'parently it's urgent."

Jon nodded and shrugged.

"That's fine, are they ready to go?"

"Yeah, 'got their whiskers in a twist so don't wait around."

Jon stepped through the now open sliding door to see a pair of chintians waiting together on a raised platform. Chintians were one foot tall, furred or even spined mammalians. They reminded Jon of meerkats or perhaps chinchillas? Or some demented mixer of the two. The human gave a mental shrug. All the races could be compared to old Earth fauna, but you'd think yourself mad as none of them ever fit the mould 'perfectly'. There was always too many differences to say, 'you are a bipedal X'. Christ the taurians looked like cows and bulls but were carnivorous! Ever seen a cow with a set of teeth that would be better suited to a shark? It causes the mind to lurch.

The two chintians had delegate badges pinned to their belts and turned to the human as he passed through the checkpoint. As Jon stepped up, he turned his back on the delegate and stood still. This was all protocol, they had done this before and so had he.

The two chintians clambered up onto the various hand and foot holds of the harness that Jon wore and settled themselves.

Jon waited a moment before stepping away from the platform, at first taking practised care not to go too fast or jostle the harness that had countless loops sewn into the fabric allowing for easy grabbing and carrying of the smaller races, but there was still a knack to not jostling passengers. They simply hung on and Jon, or any escort, would carry them to their destination. This way, the smaller species didn't need to worry about being hit or accidently kicked by the larger or perhaps unobservant others.

Too many diplomatic incidents had happened and all parties involved considered this an acceptable resolution.

"We need to go fast! We must be there fast!`` Came the voice of one of the chintians, over his left shoulder. He felt the weight shift as the creature clambered up the harness with ease.

"Do you consent to running? Do you understand the risks and dangers of this action?" Jon asked, hoping they'd agree.

"Yes yes! Speed is needed!" the voice confirmed.

Jon began to sprint. Avoiding the busier paths, he kept to the edges of the corridors which were usually left empty for exactly the reason Jon was using them. Go-fors, messengers, assistants. They could always been seen scuttling from one location to the others, whilst those not on a time crunch could meander in the middle of the corridors.

He made good time to the centre of the station. From afar, the giant central council room looked like a crown jewel of the station. It was truly gigantic and often would have fog or clouds develop inside due to the sheer size of it.

He crouched and dropped off the delegate who thumbed a tip for Jon, but said nothing as he scuttled away from view and into a room.

Jon shrugged and mentally asked himself what he needed to do next and how to get there the quickest.

He was interrupted as his radio crackled to life again, he grabbed at it before the voice finished speaking.

"Jon? You done with that Escort?" Came the voice of a priority dispatcher, distinct as they were more like 'Account Managers', dealing with those who pay extra for services and their role was to ensure the higher paying guests were served in the right manner.

"Yeah, he's arrived."

"You got a 'Ursidain' request, a request by name this time. You've made an impression with folk."

Jon's face scrunched in puzzlement. He wasn't aware anyone even knew him. Although the name tag's all over his uniform would not lend him any anonymity.

"Got an idea as to what it is?" Jon asked as he jogged towards an access corridor to take the shortest route to the ursidain quarters. It shouldn't take long, he'd just circumvent the Council Hall.

"It's an ursidain called Fon, she sounded a bit distressed? Does it ring any bells?"

The realisation hit Jon like a bucket of cold water.

"Ah, yeah, I dealt with her last week. She's got hefty anxiety. It's likely I'm going to be 'booked' for the rest of the day."

"Cool, no problems, I'll ready 'double pay' if you're engaged through a break or the end of your shift."

Jon wrapped up the conversation and eventually made it to the ursidain quarters.

His next role was almost certainly going to be a 'Support' role. Even some of the larger species on the station had a habit of being nervous like everyone else. On a confined, diplomatic station, it was better to devote resources to calming them down then let them work themselves up.

Jon had met this 'Fon' a couple of weeks back, a mature giantess of a teddy bear, but one with pretty severe anxiety. As it turned out however, having Jon nearby, simply holding her paw or rather being held in her paws, was enough to keep her calm. He'd made the error at the end of his work to try and reassure her that everything was fine, she hadn't been a nuisance and if she needed him; he wouldn't mind.

Jon never thought for a second that she'd actually ask for him, let alone pay through the nose for him specifically to come help her. She must have serious cash to be able to not only request him by name, but double pay due to a person request is paid for by the person who made the request.

Exiting the next checkpoint, he didn't have a chance to even look round before a massive thick paw appeared and snatched him from his own raised platform, the environment now designed for creatures far larger than a human. He was immediately pressed into a sea of thick and soft brown fur. He had to tilt his head backwards just to give himself the space to breathe as a second giant paw began to rapidly stroke his hair again and again as a deluge of words poured from a frantic, motherly voice far above the trapped human.

"Oh I'm so glad you're here! I was so worried! The speech is coming up and I don't know if it'll go well and I suddenly got a feeling that something had already gone wrong! And then I thought about you and was worried the feeling was to do with you! It was-"

"I'm fine! It's okay! Take a breath!" Jon cut in; his voice strained as his ribs creaked from the pressure of being squeezed into the matronly Fon.

Two giant bellows beneath the fur and flesh that Jon was still being pressed into began to inflate, it was humbling to feel such massive biological machine work as he was pressed into it.

The bellows deflated in a loud sigh above him.

"I'm sorry Jon. Do you need me to put you down? I-I-I can go without you if you're busy?"

Jon mentally kicked himself for not taking the opportunity to escape, but he was a resolute professional. He was one of the very first human guardians and he was glad to be the one that showed the aliens that whatever they can do; humans can too.

"No, I've nothing else to do today." He lied. "When your call came in I was twiddling my thumbs, you know?"

The pressure increased again as he was swung from side to side by the giant bear-like alien.

"Oh I'm so glad! You could sit on my lap while the speech is given! Oh that would help so so much! Thank you thank you!"

He was pulled from the chest and brought up to a familiar face, that had puckered its lips before planting them firmly against his face. The 'light' suction nearly pulled his entire head in between those lips before they disconnected with a dramatic 'mwah' and he was returned to a galactic sized bear hug and it felt like they were moving again. He rubbed the wetness from his face as the voice spoke up again, vibrating him as it rumbled through the giant's body.

"I'll get some snacks, and a blanket and we'll make it all cosy in my delegate booth!"

Jon tilted his head at that. The delegates, especially the ursidain ones,did always get the nicest food after all.

[wolven91]

Don't Feed The Bears

When Sarf encountered her colleague, Yous, it wouldn't have been particularly strange or odd. They were assigned as a pair to a back water planet within ursidain territories to observe and catalogue any new infections or illnesses in the trees of the new nature reserves. This had been one of the planets that had been near stripped clean by their forefather's unchecked greed. The objective was to reseed the world as best they could.

However, what Sarf found confusing was the fact her colleague, a respected scientist in his own right, was crawling on his hands and knees in the clearing. This was a new behaviour to say they least. Sure, he was a bit thin around the waist, but she didn't hold that against him as otherwise he had previously been a reliable partner.

The fact that he had walked into the clearing, but had dropped onto all fours to leave it, caused her incredible confusion, and demanded she announce herself and ask what in the oldest clan circles did he think he was doing?

Yous jumped, flinching in position until he sat backwards onto his rear and had the good decency to look a bit sheepish as he kept his head low, but slowly met her gaze. Sarf just sighed and shook her head, she was aware his size made him susceptible to bullying and didn't want to add to it, but the matter had to be addressed.

"I just want to know why you're crawling around through the forest. Are the kitchen crew bullying you again?"

"No, well... they never stopped, but no, this isn't that." The male explained, now avoiding looking at Sarf in the eyes. She watched as the ursidain was constantly scratching at the back of his paw in a nervous tick.

"I've found something out..." He said in a whisper despite their solitude from their own kind on the garden world in the making.

"The young humans..." Yous said.

"The cubs?" Sarf inclined her head, the odd, tiny, thin, and gangly creatures. The pair of botanists had been made aware that a single family unit of humans was hiding on the planet and to avoid them if possible. With just how rare humanity was, the ursidain government, like everyone else, had offered to secret populations of humans away in hidden locations within their territory. An unused infant forestry planet, with minimal to no dangerous fauna remaining did occur to Sarf as a perfect place to raise a cub, human or ursidain now she considered it. Yous continued however.

"They know us, long before meeting one of our kind properly it seems. They have a different name for us though; there's a young one and her family over in the next clearing. Just... let me show you?" He said, trying to convince her that he wasn't mad. Sarf grimaced and waved him forward. He deserved a chance, either he was sick and she would help or he had a point that she wasn't seeing without being shown.

With a roll of her eyes and a half shrug to agree for him to go for it, he rolled back over onto his four stumpy limbs and began to trudge forward, lumbering into the undergrowth. She wouldn't copy him but would hide herself from view. Watching the male lumber forwards reminded her just how close to feral beasts the ursidain people could look. She had barely propped herself up on a tree when a noise called out.

"Fluffles?" asked an unknown, but unmistakable voice of a child.

Sarf tucked herself behind an old tree, it was barely just wide enough to hide the majority of her bulk, except for the half of her face so she could spy on her colleague.

A young cub of a human came padding out from behind a bush, looking around for something... or someone it seemed more likely considering her colleague approaching her. Her dress was light, pink and flowing in the lazy breeze of the forest. She carried in her hand, a small bundle. Sarf didn't want to confidently guess the cub's age, but she suspected possibly five? Maybe six?

Yous spoke, turning the child's head towards him.

"Hello."

Sarf noticed a distinct lack of any translators in the child's ears and doubted they would have subjected her to any implants. To the human, her colleague would be only grunting or rumbling as humans struggled to understand the ursidain language, despite attempting to teach them the nuances. As soon as she caught sight of the ursidain's broad shoulders her face lit up and she bounded over to him, throwing her arms around his neck and mashing her face into his deep brown fur.

Yous, a runt by ursidain standards, completely dwarfed the tiny, delicate looking cub. Her arms didn't meet round the back of his head, despite him lowering himself down to her level. She released her hold, took a step back, and waggled an accusing finger at her colleague.

"You're late!" The young one accused, but all Yous did in return was fall back on his haunches and mumble an apology.

"I got you breakfast!" She continued, unworried about the massive creature as she presented a small bundle to him, and without hesitation or fear of becoming food herself, presented the food to Yous who happily plucked it from her hands in between claws as big as her whole hand and gobbled the food down with little issue.

Sarf became immensely jealous immediately, eyes bulging at what just happened.

Human food was delicious. This was a fact of the stars that sat alongside water being wet and fire; hot. Every ursidain knew this, but to find a human was already obscenely rare, to have a human cook for you?! How could her colleague hide this from her!?

To the little girl's perspective, her 'best friend'; a giant teddy bear she had encountered exploring the areas surrounding her parent's log house, was one of the greatest things she had found in her life. She had no memory of Earth, Bears as they were on Earth of old were no more; she hadn't been taught every extinct animal yet, so her only knowledge of the likeness of the ursidain was of her teddy bear, that still stood guard over her bed as she fed the 'real' teddy bear. To her mind, her teddy bear had merely come to life and was protecting her family just as her stuffed one protected her.

When the second 'teddy bear' appeared out of the undergrowth, the little girl's joy was immeasurable. She immediately exclaimed she'd go get more breakfast and ran off at full pelt, the last pink frill disappearing within moments.

Sarf plonked herself down next to Yous and made no comment as she mimicked him as best she could. She looked him over, ruffled the fur on top of her skull and tried to relax her shoulders. She believed she was aiming for 'dopey', if it was described with a single word. Sarf had spent years ensuring she was taken seriously, losing her slow accent and carrying herself to lessen the natural ponderous gait of ursidains.

All gone at the first hint that she might get to try human food.

"Told y-"

"Shut up."

Tip Jar

[wolven91]

The Anarchist Baker

Ross sighed dramatically as he looked around at his robbed bakery, his hands on his hips and a resigned smile across his face. A chair or two had been overturned, but it was the counter that had received the brunt of the attention. Nothing was broken however, and the door was still on its hinges, so he had that going for him. Which was nice.

As the man walked towards the counter, he reached down to pick up an empty muffin wrapper between two fingers that had been left on the ground. The crumbs tumbled out of it, but aside from that; crumbs everywhere, nothing edible remained. He moved around to behind the counter and gently tugged at the old-style cash register drawer. It didn't budge.

Still secure. There was nothing inside it, but not everyone knew that. The 'thieves' had gone for the baked goods, just like last time.

The human gave a nod and fired up the ovens.

A few hours later his tasks in the kitchen were done with foodstuffs on their way to being delicious. Using a mental checklist, Ross just had to return the front area back to having some semblance of tidy and he'd be ready for customers. The glass cupboards were all open and the shelves were bare with only the lace doilies that usually were found beneath his confections remaining.

Walking through the archway from the kitchen to the counter, he found a ursidain already sweeping the floor with his oversized broom. He recognised the brown fur and missing ear section instantly.

"Ah, you don't have to do that Mary." Ross pointed out with a smile, already picking up a smaller hand brush to clean out the counter cupboards of leftover crumbs. 'Mary' wasn't the ursidain's name, but Ross couldn't pronounce her name correctly, so it became Mary as it was close to how the first half of her name sounded. She'd never corrected him and had never said it bothered her.

"Nonsense, I knew it was too early, but you know how I can't sleep in." She replied with a large grin as she got at the edge of the counter with the bristles.

It was true, the great big brown bear-like alien was usually his first customer, often chatting with him while he set up. He liked her company; it distracted him from his usual jobs and meant he was left alone by the rougher occupants of the station. Mary had her own rumours that stalked her, but she didn't care about them and had merely ignored Ross when he had asked about them.

The station that he had opened his bakery on was not a popular destination due to the ugly poisoned planet below its orbit, which meant that whilst most ursidain were pleasant to be around, there were some that weren't as friendly. Especially not in this backwater section of ursidain space. Still, it meant Ross could hide from pirates and was given leave to follow his dream of a bakery.

"They 'robbed' you again?" Mary asked, smiling down at him as she rested her chin on the top of the handle. The ursidain stared at him with a warm hearty but knowing smile.

Ross tried to resist the urge to smirk back and turned away. Rattling the dustpan into the bin. He tried to speak calmly, to not give anything away.

"Yeah, I think I forgot to lock the door again. All the food that I was going to have to throw away this morning... Well... it's all been eaten." He gave his resigned smile again and a shrug back at Mary, although he never met her eyes. "I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on.!"

Mary grabbed the broom and lent it against a far wall in a corner where it usually lived before plodding over to the counter with rumbling ursidain footsteps where Ross was finishing up and reading the trays for the confectioneries once they were done in the next few minutes. She leant against the counter and rested her huge head in one of her dinner plate sized paw as she watched him closely. She squinted at him.

He flicked his eyes to her's then back to his work. The rumours might say she had never cracked under law enforcement pressure, but Ross wasn't that skilled.

"What?" He asked, 'innocently'.

"You're good people Ross." Mary declared.

"Not a clue what you're on about."

He retreated into the kitchen, but Mary could still see and talk to him through the serving hatch. He was doing busy work, avoiding her and the implications of his third 'robbery'.

"Those kids get food from the station, but your stuff is the best thing they're going to get and put some weight on them too." She pointed out. Seemingly knowing that it was the crowd of kids that had done the robbing of his store.

Ross didn't reply as he brought the hot freshly baked goods out to the front between two oven mitt clad hands. The ursidain's mouth began to water at the smell of hot sugar.

"I don't have a clue what you're on about." He assured her, as he gingerly popped the new items onto the shelves.

The orphans that inhabited the station weren't bad kids, they were just left without much guidance. Sure, at first, they might have graffitied Ross's shop, but the one time that happened, the following day a gang of short alien teddy bears turned up, asked Ross for a bucket with water and soap and proceeded to scrub the paint off his shop front. He'd 'paid' them in sandwiches.

The fact that each time he had a surplus of baked goods his door ended up unlocked, meaning that the following morning, his shop was 'robbed'. As such, he couldn't be accused of giving food away nor selling out of date products either. The rather heavy-handed law enforcement of the station had made that clear to him.

He wasn't allowed to give food away. The rules of the station were designed to funnel the hungry to certain 'careers'. A hungry young ursidain would agree to anything, but one that survived until they reached the right age could do whatever they wanted.

So, Ross became an anarchist baker. And Mary had started showing up shortly afterwards. It felt as if she was checking up on the smaller human, his size could leave him vulnerable to intimidation and yet he'd received no visits from anyone untoward. Any time someone serious showed up, Mary had appeared next to the counter and whilst it was always for a fresh cup of something hot, Mary had always eyed the newcomer until they either sat down or left.

Ross glanced at Mary as he finished up loading up his shelves. He wasn't sure if he could see her being one of the 'dangerous' ones, but with her being so huge, he at least wouldn't deliberately get on her wrong side. She was currently eyeing either him or his pastries hungrily. At least he wasn't a pastry.

Still, if it kept the kids out of trouble and our of being exploited, the human didn't mind baking more than what was needed.

[wolven91]

Beers With The Fellas

"Hey guys, you coming round to mine tonight? Got a bunch of drinks in." Asked the human suddenly, surprising the work crew.

The rest of the crew looked up from where they were packing away their tools to the diminutive creature. The 'new' additions, that were the humans, were still finding their feet in the wider society despite it being over a year since their disastrous debut. It had to be admitted that they had taken to it rapidly now that they had given a proper opportunity.

That said, they often had odd ideas that left the other races scrabbling to react correctly.

The crew was a mixture of races, none of which really mixed outside of work. It wasn't that they specifically didn't like each other or had unfounded prejudices, it was just... not done? The various races had multiple clashes with one another. Everyone present hadn't been involved in the fighting or even knew someone involved, but it was s still a fact that their respective governments had a cold relation, if at all. The slender taurian, looked to the robust ursidain, who looked to the towering ssypno. When a new species joined the wider community, it was required, expected or demanded that they be given an opportunity to show how they can add to the community, how their culture reacted to others.

It was just good sense, a fresh set of eyes on established processes. Especially saying of just how much the galaxy had stagnated over the last few hundred years. There were rumours that nothing had changed, not even a new recipe in all that time. At least not until the humans showed up.

In the distant past, some races like the vulptanis had interesting technology to add, or others, like the esquinines, had an inspired governmental process. But the humans? Well, they had none of these overt boons.

But what they did have, was ideas. Odd ones, but every now and then a tiny change here or there had a ripple effect that confounded established processes down the line. Some good, some bad.

So, when the human was stood there, arms wide, a broad smile plastered over her face and offered the team to come to her domicile for 'drinks', the crew hesitated when they realised their first gut reaction was to say no. Afterall, you didn't invite practical strangers into your nest, den or home, colleagues or not it was done.

"Sure?" replied the taurian, always first to side with the human, even to his detriment. Male taurians were meant to know how to handle any social situation after all, it was why he oversaw managing the haphazard group.

The ursidain, a male who hadn't quite decided if he liked the tiny, stick thin creatures yet, rolled his eyes whilst facing away from the group, he'd wait, let the rest of them decide before throwing in his own choice with the popular choice. The ssypno clapped his hands together with a joyful look plastered across his face.

"I've never seen a human home before! Of course! Do you need me to bring anything?"

"Only if you want something specific to drink, a friend of mine works in logistics; a bunch of beer, or rather what was described as beer. The kegs got damaged and the snooty sluggat who they were for refused to accept them. They were paid for so he basically gave me a bunch as he needed the warehouse space, should be enough to tide you guys over and I made sure to have plenty of food in so-"

"What time?" Asked the ursidain, not intending to interrupt the human, but to be fair he'd need to go and get washed first. At the mention of food his head had whipped round, ears perked.

"Soon as you're ready, all I'm going to do when I get home is get changed. Apparently, the comet that flew by earlier today has a tail that'll give us a bit of a light show." She explained. It was as a good excuse as any, the ursidain would get to eat, the ssypno would get to satisfy his curiosity and the taurian would suffer through, but watch, monitor and learn what he could.

The team broke up and went their separate ways. It was barely a few hours later, that the trio of aliens met up with one another again as they navigated to the human's apartment. It was an interesting travel, the human's home was a secret, they were banned from revealing it and were escorted at one point by a squad of canids to ensure they weren't being followed. As the 'B' repair team, they were used to getting the crap jobs, the jobs the rest of the teams didn't want. So the fact they got an escort and were brought to a very nice hab-block with all the airs and graces that came with that life?

It stroked their egos ever so gently, endearing them to the human for this opportunity. No rich citizen would invite 'their kind' here normally. Not unless a toilet was broken.

Stepping up to the door, they scratched their claws down the metal plate to announce themselves and moments later their human colleague let them in with a smile and a flourish.

"Hey! Come on through, I rigged up an ice bath on the balcony so if you got anything that needs cooling down, you can stick it in there. Foods next to the doors too!" The female human finished with a chuckle, lightly elbowing the ursidain in the rotund belly. The giant brown bear grinned at his weight being acknowledged; he'd tried hard to ensure he kept up appearances, it was nice that someone other than a fellow ursidain finally paid him a compliment. To the ursidains, to be accused of getting thin was on par with the worst insult one could think of after all.

Stepping through the door, the home wasn't too far removed from the standard template, but the home itself had some odd styleistic choices. The ssypno made no effort to hide his curiosity, moving around, running his fingers over the counter tops. Everything was too small, but he loved the rugs that tied to room together, plus it was nice to have something other than the cold floors beneath him.

He shamelessly stole the idea of rugs everywhere for his own meagre home.

The whole team eventually settled on the balcony that overlooked 'The Great Glass Ceiling' that was the ceiling and sides of all the spinning circular station that residents this side of the station enjoyed for an unobstructed view of space. At first, conversation was hesitant, the nervousness of meeting co-workers outside of a work environment was alien, but with drinks and food available, eventually the walls came down. They settled into the banter they had during the day, realising that they were no different from who they were at work, just more relaxed.

The comet's 'tail' was a sight to behold as micro-meteors lashed the station's shielding creating a display of shooting stars that were hard to come by outside of specific planets. Even the shield added its own glowing display that coloured the darkened residential district.

What came from this evening was a noted high cohesion of the team by upper management and the taurian manager. All of a sudden, during work hours they were far more in sync with one another and became even more so over time. Their efficiency skyrocketed from a lower end of the average to being classed as 'ideal' by the station AI. Upper management, obviously wanted to recapture this lightning in a bottle. So began their plan to enforce 'team building exercises' for all workers outside of work hours. This initiative ended as a unmitigated disaster and almost universally hated when employed with the various other races.

The Administrator of the station instead decided to recreate the original environmental settings while instructing nearby stations to do the same and see what would happen. Several food and drink deliveries were 'refused' for various false reasons and marked as 'free to be taken'. The human, and other humans on other stations, time and again, took the opportunity to share their wealth with their colleagues. Each time the various races took part with these 'drinks with the guys/girls' there was a noted positive increase to their work-life interactions.

Mind bogglingly, they invited near strangers into their homes or to established bars to simply 'make friends' with any species, not just their own.

The social engineering of humans, seemingly unintentionally, was a boon to any workplace should they have access to what was needed, meaning free booze and food, and placed with staff that were openly welcoming to newcomers. It was quietly designed that this would happen should a human appear in a station and request work.

Humans were excruciatingly rare still, but if one enquired about any open positions, a role was created in rapid order where the 'recommended' settings of human friendly crew were available. Each time and every time, the overall productivity, morale and team cohesion increased once the human began making friends in their own strange alien way.

The various AIs of each station communicated with one another and simply made the conditions easier for these humans to work their magic. For the cost of a single delivery of consumables, these humans made work teams who were struggling into top notch employees.

[wolven91]

Spa Day

Jonathan pushed his hand into the thick white pelt of Garsh's arm and luxuriated in its softness. He pushed his arm forwards and his hand disappeared into the pelt, then his wrist, then part of his forearm, before his palm touched something solid and hot.

The ursidain's fur was dense and thick, if the human had to guess, it was near enough a foot deep. The outer layer was rough and coarse to the touch, creating a sort of barrier to the outside environment. When he pushed his fingers deeper, the soft under pelt felt like silk to his hands, but the heat that was trapped beneath was also instantly transferred to the man's hand. It wasn't a surprise that her hidden flesh felt hot to the touch, ursidains ran far hotter than a human ever did.

The human and the ursidain were both sitting on a bench in the public space of the station. It had been a long day and the two of them, after leaving work, had immediately needed to just sit and take time to decompress. It all honesty it had been a busy week, they were both exhausted and finally had a few days to themselves. The busy period was over.

As Jonathan lovingly combed his fingers through the fur on her arm, he noted the coarse fur and the knots he came across on a regular basis. Garsh had her eyes closed and head leant back as she lay slumped on the bench itself. Jonathan watched her for a time, noting the clenched jaw and the effort she was making to slow her breathing, taking in air through her mouth and exhaling through her nose. A technique he himself had taught her.

"Fancy a 'spa-day'?" He asked, breaking the silence, unaware if 'spas' were a thing up here.

She frowned, before the 'polar bear' like ursidain lifted her head to turn to him and fix him with a quizzical expression.

"The heck's a 'spa-day'?"

Jonathan gave a single bark of a laugh before sobering when she remained confused rather than revealing her joke.

"How about I book it all and we go together?"

--- 0 ---

Turns out, the aliens did 'do' spas.

The following day, the pair pulled off the station's motorway and pulled up in a vehicle bay using the 'hover-bike' that Garsh had favoured over the sealed 'cars' that the majority of the citizens preferred. Garsh had given up trying to get Jonathan to call the vehicles by the correct terms, it seemed another strange quirk of 'her' human.

Humans seem to have their own names for things and enjoyed mildly annoying everyone by using their terms over the correct ones often deliberately using terms that the translators would hiccup over rather than their correct names.

The human and the ursidain entered into the 'spa' and the atmosphere changed from the busy, cavernous station, to a warm, welcoming room with a smiling male taurian behind a desk. He ducked his head in a graceful bow, until they stood before him at the counter.

Jonathan tiptoed up to peer over the desk and confirmed his details with the receptionist who immediately welcomed to duo into the deeper parts of the building with a sweep of his arm. Garsh had no idea as to what to expect from the spa. It wasn't something that people like her did.

She was an engineer, getting greasy or dirty was part and parcel of the job. What was the point of spending hard earned credits on getting clean when she could do it with a coarse brush and bad language at home?

When she was told to strip and given an oversized fluffy robe, the ursidain's eyes bugged out of her head and flitted across to Jonathan who merely laughed and disappeared behind a curtain. To her left was a similar curtain, which she peered around to reveal a changing room like one would find in a clothes shop. Turning the fluffy robe over in her hands she found that hers had no sleeves, but when she saw Jonathan again, his robe covered more of his whole body.

Another pair of diminutive taurians, at least to Garsh, ushered them through to a new room. This one was full of hot mist and the pair were subjected to a hot bath.

The bubbling water, but not boiling, roiled and undulated with a pleasant scent curling up from it in the steam. At first Garsh was concerned about whether it was wise to go anywhere near something that hot without safety measures, especially with such precious cargo like a human around. Jonathan instead simply shed his robe and stepped down into the giant boiling cauldron, much to Garsh's shock and horror!

However, instead of all the thrashing and screaming she expected, the human merely gingerly settled himself into the water, 'oohing' and aahing'. The ursidain frowned and with very little grace, 'plunked' a foot into the water to test the heat. Hot, but not uncomfortable. Copying the human, she tossed the robe and with all the grace expected of an ursidain, tumbled into the bubbling pool as her foot didn't find a solid floor past the shelf Jonathan was using. A surge of water partially lifted and displaced the human who cackled at the display, glancing over to his robe which had been already retrieved and placed onto a raised bench by an unseen assistant alongside hers.

The overflow of water displaced by the ursidain went into wide drains that surrounded the hot tub. Jonathan suspected any ursidain sitting in the pool would cause the same tidal wave, so considered it wise planning on the architect's part. The constant stream of bubbles provided a massage to the pair of them as the streams of air rippled through Garsh's fur and over Jonathan's skin. For a time, she sat with her arms in her lap, unsure on what she was supposed to do now.

Garsh looked over to Jonathan, wondering what the next part was. The human merely smiled and said that she should try counting her breaths into she got to a hundred. She got to twenty-six before Jonathan sighed and scooted down into the water. Ursidains were roughly twice the height of a human, with the design of the pool, she was sat on a lower bench that was beneath the roiling surface. It was one of the few times that she and Jonathan were almost eye level. The gentle giant cared deeply for the human and only wanted what was best of him and to make him happy. The only reason she had agreed to this whole thing was because he had said it would make him happy...

Seemingly sensing her gaze, he opened a single eye, smiled and scooted along the shelf until they were sat touching arm to arm. She leant back and stretched out, placing an arm at Jonathan's back. With this natural feeling action, it was her turn to sigh as a wave of contentment washed over her and the ursidain finally 'got' spa days, scooting down into the water.

Garsh began to notice painful bunches of muscles across her body that she hadn't realised was there. Tensed legs, arms or even her shoulders began to uncoil. She rolled her shoulders as she hesitantly allowed her tense muscles to relax. It was an alien sensation, but far from a horrible one. She found her lungs releasing a pent-up breath she hadn't realised she was holding on to.

The two lay against one another for a time, listening to the sound of the water before a quiet noise of another set of two employees entering the room with a tray of bottles and brushes. Every furred and even scaled being up in the stars had a grooming kit. A series of clippers and brushes held in personal kits of varying styles was owned by everyone bar the humans. The kit's these attendants unrolled however, were of the finest quality, appearing as gold with shining silver of metal along the edges of the blades and scissors.

The attendants coaxed the pair from the waters, Garsh averting her gaze from the human's body before laying down on the leather gurneys that had been rolled out for them.

What followed was a significant shampooing, conditioning, and scrubbing of Garsh's pelt in such a manner that she couldn't recall the last time it had had such attention given to it. Of course, she washed herself, kept clean and gave it a brush when needed, but the attentions she was being given was unlike anything she had experienced before. The human on the contrary was both easier and harder for the delicate taurian to deal with. Instead resorting to a body massage to burn time waiting for his ursidain partner to be dealt with.

When Garsh was finally released and the pair were told they could sit up and join the attendants in the next room at their leisure, Jonathan's jaw dropped open. Garsh was practically glowing, her fur, usually a creamy white, was now almost sparkling in the dull lights of the spa, it rippled and flowed easily with every movement.

Garsh pulled the curtain to the next room to one side, allowing Jonathan through. Now there were two seats, the human was dwarfed by it, whereas it was 'just right' for Garsh. What happened next was a pedicure and a manicure. The taurians once more were stumped by the dull 'claws' of the human, whereas they knew exactly what they were doing with the ursidain. Jonathan opened one eye to see them applying what looked like nail polish onto his nails and opened his mouth to protest.

Until he noticed the male taurians working on him, who all sported various colours across their claws. He gave a mental shrug and laid back. There were no humans on the station, he doubted any alien that knew what was 'normal' for a human and what wasn't. Plus, it felt nice to be pampered...

The rest of the day was a series of events, each focused on another part of their bodies. Claws, ears, arms, and legs.

When they finally stepped out of the building, both of them practically glowed.

Climbing onto the 'bike' again, Garsh ensured that Jonathan was wearing his helmet, before wrapping a protective paw around his front and pulled him backwards so his back was against her front. Only now, instead of compressing the fur of her front, he instead partially disappeared into the luscious thick pelt. His world was outlined with the long white fibres of her fur and his own body heat was reflected back at his back immediately.

"So, when is it my turn to drive this thing?" He asked playfully.

A rumbling chuckle gave him a taste of what an earthquake felt like.

"On this deathtrap? Not a chance. Now hold on, we're setting off."

[wolven91]

Easedropping

Nick opened the door to the train's empty cabin and settled himself into the seat. He had a brief moment where he allowed himself to hope that he'd get the cabin to himself for the journey, but one look out the window at the packed platform dispelled that notion as soon as it appeared.

The mag-lift train would set off shortly and after an evening's travel would be on the opposite side of the planet along with thousands of others.

The cabin could comfortably house four passengers, but that was for four of the alien passengers, the big ones. With Nick being a human, he'd actually have ample room for himself as humans were not the largest species out here. The man could have stretched out of the padded seat that he was in and never touched the walls.

With a wince, he removed one of translators from his ear and placed it onto the table in front of himself. Nick's ear was aching, he must have put it in at a weird angle or something. Leaving it out would rest his lobe and he'd just put it back in as and when.

That's when the cabin door slid open to reveal a black and white furred taurian with a thick gold ring through the end of her muzzle, her horns barely fit in the doorway.

"Ey! We got three spaces in 'ere!" The bull-like taurian called back down the corridor outside the cabin.

"Hey can we- oh, you ain't going to understand me." The taurian started before trailing off while glancing at the unused translator on the table. Nick could understand her however as his second translator in his other ear was working perfectly fine, albeit hidden from her view. The taurian was joined by her compatriots moments later.

A black furred felinoid and a similarly black furred ursidain's face appeared on either side of the taurian's shoulders, all of them curious as to their friend's find.

"Jackpot!" Bellowed the ursidain gleefully and shoved past the hesitating taurian, who was sent stumbling into the cabin. The giant she-bear sat heavily on the same bench as Nick causing him to be bodily lifted off the cushion briefly as the ursidain displaced. He landed and found himself sliding towards the Ursidain as she warped the bench with her far greater mass. When he touched against the side of her thigh, it gave easily, her black fur rolling against him. It was warm to the touch and was not missed by her either. Thankfully, she didn't make the wrong assumption and pointedly ignored him.

Re-seating himself, Nick watched as the Felinoid with pitch black fur that rippled with a glossy sheen, settled herself opposite the human with the table between them and finally, the taurian, with a shrug, settled into the remaining seat before closing the door behind her.

"I hope you don't mind us sharing." The felinoid mentioned lightly, but the ursidain broke in with a chuckle.

"Ah, he can't understand ya, even some of your words are even out of his hearing range without that thing in." The bear-like alien explained to the cat-like alien.

Nick did consider correcting them, but instead simply remained quiet. If they asked him a direct question, he'd respond. Otherwise, he'd settle himself into a long session of people watching while pretending to look out the window. He didn't miss the fact that the felinoid had 'accidently' started resting her foot against his leg after crossing her legs.

"Aw look at him. By The Feast, I love humans." Rumbled the ursidain's voice from above and to his side.

"Got to admit, there's something about them I like too." Replied the taurian, nodding in Nick's peripheral vision.

The felinoid made an 'mmm' noise as she continued to stare at the human. Nick tried to avoid letting on he could see out of the corner of his eye how she was completely focused on him. He kept his face completely still.

"It's how small they are for me. Actually, a bunch of folk I know of feel the same. Humans just look cute and small. They need protecting!" Claimed the black mountain to his left, she was quite animated, her thick arms, as wide as Nick's torso swept through the air with ease as she spoke.

"Naah! They're sexy!" Countered the taurian as a retort. "Look at him! Dressed all provocatively. No horns and no headband to cover it?! Goddess." He felt another set of eyes staring at him now.

Nick was almost certain the side of his head was about to start smoking under the intensity of their combined focus.

"And! They're really weird." Nick briefly frowned at the taurian's claim, but smoothed his features with, quite frankly, incredible skill, he if did say so himself. "They're all the opposite way round. Their males act like females! And, and! I heard! They like sex and what we look like, just as strongly as we feel it." Claimed the bull excitedly.

Ah, Nick understood now. Taurians had a gender-norm flip when compared to humans. The males and females were satisfied with their stereotypical roles but found humans to be quite fascinating as a human of their opposite gender, suddenly, (stereotypically) enjoyed the same things they did. The males had a maze of protocols and rules surrounding them, whereas the females had the libido of a high school jock.

It had been described by a fellow human who had spent time in taurian space that the female taurians often acted like, quote, 'lads lads lads' and were quite oblivious to what was 'proper' when interacting with the males of their race as the males were far more 'prim and proper'.

"Mm, I honestly don't mind. Apparently, humans like us anyway. Did you know they worshipped us?" The felinoid stated, finally breaking off her stare to glance at the other two occupants of the cabin.

"What?!" "Rubbish!" Came the two replies.

"Oh it's quite true. Even in their ancient times, they had entire murals built to give homage to our visage." Said the Panther-esk feline, as she brushed the curve of her claws against her fur and inspected them closely.

"Even to the point of its destruction, on Sol-3 they kept and loved feral versions of ourself right up until the end" Cats?! This one believed that cats counted as worship towards the felinoid race? Well it come cases... honestly... he could see how they could take the wrong message away.

Nick didn't enjoy hearing about Earth, it was still a bit raw for him, but he couldn't ask them to stop now. But he needn't have worried, the panther continued, pressing on.

"What I find fun, is that most humans believe most felinoids they meet are female."

Nick resisted the urge to raise his eyebrows. It was true, he'd never seen a male felinoid before, the ship full of them that turned up at his station was entirely female... right?

"They don't realise that our genders are just very similar to one another. A surprise for a human to learn if they hadn't asked beforehand!" The panther chuckled. "Apparently the adventurous ones can be quite shocked."

"Haha, yeah like they... wait.. you're female right?" Asked the ursidain.

"No, I'm male? By the seven truths; you're joking right?"

The pregnant silence was tortuous as Nick resist the urge to burst out laughing. He had to bite his tongue hard enough until he was sure it would bleed.

"My god you're as bad as they are!" Accused the felinoid with an outstretched finger.

The cabin fell into silence again. After a few minutes, the panther spoke once more.

"I'd let this one believe whatever he wanted. I've spent the last ten minutes trying to press my leg against his so I can feel his warmth..." She, Nick correct himself, He was speaking to the window now, but the felinoid was still addressing his companions.

"If he'd let me curl up next to him, I'd do whatever it took. Tucking and all."

The taurian chuckled.

"Some of them are quite open. We're going to be all sleeping in here... maybe you can try and say you're freezing? Ham it up, do a bit of a shiver?" The scheming black and white alien suggested, hatching a scheme.

The panther alien scratched at his chin as he considered.

"As long as I'm my demure self, he might be for it."

"I'll just say we all spoon together! I wanna' hug him and squeeze 'im." Declared the black bear. "I'll just make out we're all cold!"

The taurian looked frustrated.

"Two points. One, he'll be lost to your tits and two, what about me?! I want a turn! I'm fine not spooning, that's not my thing, but it means I'm left out!" She crossed her arms over her muscled chest and glared at the door in a huff. With a glance, Nick felt she was inches away from kicking the door in a huff. Nick noted the other two were looking at each other and having a conversation with their eyebrows in silence.

It wrapped up with the felinoid nudging his head towards the door.

"Well.. what if we 'go for food'? It'll give you an hour or two to work him over?" Suggested the ursidain, 'subtly' tilting her head.

"How? Just drop to my knees and suggest he lower his pants? Make kissy faces? His translator is out! Oh yeah; that'll work." The taurian huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Do you want the chance or not?" Demanded the felinoid.

A moment ticked by.

"Yes."

A few moments more and the ursidain's knee was slapped by the felinoid as he got up and moved out of the cabin, gracefully moving despite the rocking of the moving train. The black furred mountain was less graceful, wobbling and stomping when her balance was found wanting.

The door closed and Nick was left alone with the black and white cow, who idly toyed with the ring the glittered in the setting sunlight.

The man looked round 'idly' and as naturally as he could. When he had her attention, Nick gave a tight lipped, but hopefully warm smile to her.

Nick had to admit she was attractive, he probably wouldn't have said no if she had approached him, but he wasn't sure how to react to such a candid conversation.

"Say.. you-.. ah.. you still don't understand me." She started then stopped, the wind visibly taken out of her sails and looking outright dejected.

"And why wouldn't I?" Asked Nick with a ghost of a smirk on his face.

The human worried for a moment whether he'd given her a heart attack as he refitted the spare translator into his ear.

"You.. did.. I mean, we... err.." The large and imposing lady spluttered.

It was adorable.

"Don't worry, it's different to hear things with no filter, but I wasn't insulted... not really." He tried to assure her, folding away the table now it was unneeded.

"So... about why I stayed behind...?" She asked, with a hopeful tone that was painfully obvious. These female Taurians really were like oblivious young men, full of nerves and hormones with no idea how to use what they had.

"Well we've only got just over an hour and a half... how do these beds unfold?" Nick asked carefully, thankfully for her, so was he.

[wolven91]

Bears In Space

The marauders had thought this would be an easy take. A tiny craft, slinking through the system, using the shadows of the planets to hide. Perfect to go undetected, if not that the raiding party was doing the very same.

The danger on this tiny craft was the ursidain guardian. A powerhouse in her own right, she'd fight tooth and claw for her human ward. But handle her and the human would be easy pickings. They'd caught the craft unawares, deliberately using a small craft of their own to sneak up submerged in the civilian craft's engine wake. Only a pilot who had used the same tactic would know what to look for. At most they'd think their engine was doing something strange, not that a raiding party was mere moments away from boarding them.

The fight for control was intense, but short.

Three of the marauders had been killed. One had their top half separated from their bottom in one, seemingly effortless, pull by the thirteen-foot-tall guardian. Ursidains could tear bulkheads from walls if angered enough, one draconian spine wasn't much of a problem.

The second's, an esquinine, head was limp against their shoulder at an odd angle, the wild swing that had connected had obviously broken their neck with ease. So much for their 'powers'. It didn't take a telepath to know that the ursidain would have killed each and every one of them at a moments notice.

The third and final casualty was an idiot taurian. He had lost their footing rushing the ursidain and had ended up on their back, firing upwards. The ursidain had merely stepped on them. An average ursidain weighed easily over a metric ton. She hadn't even needed to stomp; the fool's ribcage had snapped like thin dry twigs.

The remaining three team members had simply fired round after electrified round at the raging creature. Ursidains were hardly, but not invincible. A thin pelt and flesh prevented rounds from penetrating deeper. A fused ribcage protected their organs, muscles and tendons with naturally occurring carbon, strengthening their power and force. Realistically, the only thing ursidains naturally feared was deep water. Pressure was their enemy, so not even vacuum scared them thanks to their ridiculous biology.

But she eventually went down. The remaining three raiders were smart, staying away from her swipes and keeping their backs to a sealed door in the small cargo bay.

"Don't kill her." Ordered the lead. The human was nowhere to be found, the place reeked of them, but being so small, like a chintian or geckin, they could hide in places the other races couldn't go, there was no point in searching, so they kept their attention on the entrance to the cargo bay. No, the ursidain had to be kept alive so they could use her to pressure the human into giving up. Humans were soft. Weak. One cut and they bleed out, they didn't even have thick flesh or a protective pelt. They could be tricked.

"Human! This has already been a failure of a raid. Not even you are worth the loss of three of my finest." An obvious lie. Those three were wastes of space and with their departure from his crew, the reward for the human would be divided only three times instead of six. Realistically, the felinoid could have given the human a cut of their reward as thanks and still come out with more credits.

"I'll just kill your friend here and blow up the ship. You're not worth this effort."

"You realise you won't get away with this... right?" The ursidain rumbled from her knelt position, head rising. The three remaining pirates turned their attention to her.

"Oh no? An empty system, no signals going out, no relays even if there was and the witnesses about to be taken care of. Go on, how am I not going to get away with this?"

The ursidain grinned.

"You weren't paying attention to the-"

A deafening roar stole her words as a hurricane materialised in the cargo bay. A terrible force tore all four of the creatures from their place on the metal floor as the fury and might of the vacuum of space grabbed a hold of them. The ursidain knew what to look for as she tumbled head over heels towards the black. A human in a space suit, holding the emergency venting lever down. She caught eyes with her ward as she sailed past and out of the doors.

The raiding team screamed as they went, but nobody heard them, there's no sound in space and the moment they were clear of the air rushing out of the cargo bay, all sound cut off for them too. By the time their bodies collided with their own craft, two of the three were pretty much dead. They had attempted to hold their breaths and their lungs had exploded. The third only survived as they had no air in their lungs, but even then, a mere thirty seconds after entering the black, they too passed.

Their last vision was the ursidain, floating by with them. At least they got one of the pair.

The human on the other hand knew they had a few minutes. Using everything their guardian had taught them, they ensured that their own harness was attached to the miles long cord that kept them latched onto their craft. Then, they leapt from their ship.

The only thing they could hear was their own laboured breathing. 'Never get off the boat' was engrained on anyone who left the safety of a station or planet, the panic and fear of the void was real. Too many things could go wrong if one went floating out into the void. The human ignored the other lazily spinning corpses nearby, the heads-up display on their helmet highlighted the ursidain. They slowed their approach and immediately latched a hook onto the ursidain's belt. Checking it twice, the human began to reel in the tether.

Ursidains were hardy. The sheer strength of their chests and muscles, meant that for a time, vacuum would not kill them. Deep water was deadly, able to crush them as it worked against their strengths, but it meant in the event pirates boarded a ship without vacuum suits? It was better to just vent the whole ship into space while the ursidain distracted them. Just so long as they get picked up well within quarter of an hour... after that...

When the cargo bay sealed and repressurised, the human was watching their HUD for the green 'Pressurised' label before unlatching the helmet and throwing it aside.

When their hands shook the ursidain, nothing happened. They shook the giant again and they still remained unmoving.

It wasn't until the human slapped the ursidain with a desperate panicked shout that the guardian awoke with an 'ow!'.

"I thought you were dead!"

"So you slap dead people?!"

"You were MESSING with me!?"

"I thought you'd find it funny!"

"You're mental!"

"You're rubbing off on me then!"

Discord / KoFi

[wolven91]

Inventors

When humanity joined the rest of the races amongst the stars, it was a cause of celebration across the stars as they paraded the humans through the GC ring world, regardless of the gaunt and tired faces that the ticker tape and confetti fell upon.

The celebration was confirmation that there was yet more to the universe to see! The melancholy that had plagued the races for two hundred years was over! There was yet more life in the galaxy! What humanity learnt in the coming weeks and months, was the reason *why* humanity being found and brought into the fold was so important.

It was because the wider galaxy; had stagnated.

No new ideas were being made. No new technology besides mild improvements of what had already been there. No new fashion, just old things recycled again and again. Not even concepts that were commonplace and obvious to humanity had been even thought about by the wider GC. It was so bad, for so long, there was a statement that confused most humans when they heard it. The galaxy was so stagnant, that not even so much as a new recipe had been discovered in over a hundred years.

So, when humanity appeared, most of the races didn't even *think* of asking them whether they had any new ideas they wanted to share with the galaxy, they assumed that the races had not only thought of everything, but that humanity couldn't have possibly discovered new things on their own.

In the end, it was little things that were slowly added to the combined technology of the Galactic Community.

An 'umbrella' was created on a planet that only ever had rain. A blanket with sleeves in was invented for a long-haul transport trip.

'Unique' and 'inspired'.

So obvious most of the races from the stars merely blinked and wondered how they could have possibly missed such marvellous and simple ideas.

Humanity! The little inventors that *could*!

It was brilliant PR for the little race to buck off the sombre knowledge they were nearly extinct to add their own work into the tapestry of the GC. The heads of state even gave a small speech of how, regardless of whether in a hundred years humanity was still with the GC, their little contributions would mean they were remembered forever!

The console screen snapped off and the remote thrown across the room, hitting a cushion with a solid 'thud'.

"Fucking twats." Growled the human, still glaring at the now blank screen, fuming.

A canid's head popped around the doorframe at the outburst with his ears perked and eyes attentive. The human was facing away, but the tense shoulders and anger in Ted's voice told Kiv that the human needed him. The scent was acidic and figuratively burnt the back of Kiv's snout.

"You okay Teddy?" Asked the canid, quickly washing his hands and running them down the messy grey fur of his thighs to dry them. Padding into the room, the human now had his hands on his hips but was staring at the blank console screen mounted on the wall. From Kiv's perspective, he was like an ursidain; a living mountain. The tight green shirt running along and highlighting the corded muscles of his back, neck and shoulders.

"Teddy?" Asked the canid again, gently. He stepped around the oversized sofa and tapped the tips of two of his claws together, holding his hands in front of his chest as a nervous tick. Kiv was a nervous soul and despite doing nothing to earn the ire of the human, there was still a part of the canid that blamed himself for anything negative in the world around him.

The human turned to face Kiv and the mostly fleshy face broke into a tired smile, easing Kiv's fears.

Kiv was not your average canid. He was an outlier by a large margin. As a canid, he was considered 'disabled' despite being perfectly capable to exist in society without the need for help. But Kiv wasn't considered 'capable' in his own species' eyes.

Kiv was a runt. Incapable of serving the military or even private security in any capacity.

At barely 5'5, the canid had to look up at the 6'3 human who dwarfed him in all ways. Kiv practically had to bend his back and crane his neck just to look his fellow canids in the eyes, saying that they could reach up to 10 feet in height. The human blinked and sighed through his nose before speaking. 

"Sorry Kiv, I got... annoyed at the TV." Replied the human, gesturing with a limp arm and allowing the tension that was in his broad shoulders to melt away with another sigh. The human merely turned to the canid and wrapped his arms around the short, furry alien. Kiv closed his eyes and rumbled into the nap of Teddy's neck, relishing the thick broad arms of the human, holding him in place. The human, without issue of effort, lifted the wiry canid from the floor and flopped down onto the sofa. It had been built for the titan-esque ursidains in mind; the furniture barely noticed both the human and the tiny canid.

Relaxing into Ted's hug, Kiv didn't know what a 'TV' was but could guess that it was the news that had annoyed Ted. It usually was.

"What were they saying?" Kiv asked quietly after a moment of them both laying there.

"Congratulating us poor, helpless humans and how we're doing *super* and that if we die out, that's okay; we invented stuff." Ted replied with a gruff, annoyed tone. It still made Kiv nervous. The mere tone was enough to set him on edge despite Teddy never *once* raising his voice in anger for frustration at the canid.

Kiv's ears laid flat as he gazed up at his human longingly. Kiv never believed he could be a real canid before meeting Ted. Canids each had an instinctual drive to protect and defend others. It mostly meant one's pack, but when Kiv simply wasn't included in a pack, all he wanted was someone who could rely on him, despite being a runt.

Then he had bumped into the mountain of a creature that was Theodore. Ted or 'Teddy' for short. Kiv liked how only *he* was allowed to call the human 'Teddy'. The human had mistaken Kiv for a cub at first, which the canid couldn't blame the human for. But after that crash introduction, the pair of them had become close friends. Kiv had shown the human around the station in a manner not approved of by the administration and the human had met an equal, one that didn't treat him like a lesser being. Kiv had to admit that he had fallen for the human almost instantly in the beginning...

Moving in together had been pragmatic. Sharing each other's bed was merely the natural progression of things, much to the canid's absolute joy. He had never dreamt that he could have had such a wonderful life when he was growing up.

Kiv gently licked the underside of Teddy's chin, pulling the hulking figure out of his thoughts again.

"You don't need their approval. Since when have you needed anyone's?" Asked the canid carefully, pointing out the truth. The human grinned and planted his soft lips against Kiv's leathery nose once. Kiv licked it as a habitual response.

"You are the only one that matters to me. Just annoyed. I feel called out." Replied the human, merely articulating his feelings for the alien.

"Don't! You're a brilliant inventor! Your invention is going to change the stars! Every canid from here to Anul-6 is going to want one! Even if you only sold them for a single credit; you're never going to have to work another day in your life! We could-"

But Kiv stopped himself and laid his muzzle flat against the human's chest, preventing him from spiralling and talking too fast and too much. He had a habit of getting excited then speaking so much that people found it annoying. Kiv didn't want to annoy Teddy...

"Hey! Hey, hey hey..." The human coaxed, aware that the canid was once again silencing himself. The human used his arms to hug and squeeze the canid to get his attention. Ted was aware that Kiv was used to being shut down by others, merely because his opinion was worthless to them thanks to his size. "What was it? 'We could' what?" The human asked calmly.

"You'll laugh." Accused Kiv, nervous and feeling vulnerable.

"Never at you darling. *Never* at you. What could we do if this works?" Promised the human, using his finger and thumb to being the canid's head up and catch his gaze, holding it; silently promising nothing but respect and love.

"We could... get a little plot of land..." Whispered Kiv in a tiny voice.

"Oh? That would be nice... Whereabouts?" Whispered Ted right back.

"...I always liked the looks of the ursidain forestry worlds... They sell little parcels... I... um... That was my dream. To earn enough to buy one..." Mumbled the canid directly into the chest of the human, the insides of his ears turning a bright pinkie red, that had the human grinning from ear to ear.

"Alright then. That's the goal." Ted said with a firm tone and a curt nod.

Kiv's head snapped right back up, nearly clocking the human under the chin with the canid's skull.

"But what about you?" The furry, wolf-like alien demanded.

Teddy snorted.

"Like I had a 'plan'. Until you came along, I didn't have anything, or anyone left to make plans *with*. At least now..." He touched his nose to the canid's muzzle again. Kiv licked again. "I have someone to dote on."

The pair laid there for a time on the sofa, merely enjoying each other with their eyes closed. Eventually Ted sighed and with a single hand, reached out to the coffee table where one of his prototypes laid there. Grasping it, he held it up in one hand and turned it over.

'This is so stupid' Ted thought to himself, only to have Kiv, seemingly read his mind and pipe up.

"They're brilliant you know. I mean it."

"You really think they'll be popular?" The human gave it a squeeze and physically felt the response from Kiv as he laid on the human. The rubberised material deformed in the human's grip and forced the air out of the hollow insides through a squeaker. The high pitch squeal gave one note, then drawled another as air flooded back in once Ted had relaxed his grip.

His eyes flicked to the canid, who despite living with these things now for a few weeks, was still; completely and utter enraptured by the object. His eyes and ears were locked on and as Ted held the toy still, raised above the canid, Kiv could help but lick his chops and begin to shake in anticipation.

Ted broke out into laughed and scooped the canid up into a hug and rolled the alien against the back of the couch as he began peppering the smaller creature with kisses, his foul mood; long forgotten.

[r/WolvensStories]

[Ko-Fi]

[wolven91]

Slight of Hand

Taurians are impressive to behold.

The males move like they float, never even so much as ruffling the silks they wore. Their ability to handle any situation, speak on a wide variety of topics, all the while being cool, calm and collected.

It *was* impressive.

The females were impressive by a whole different nature.

As tall as the tallest human, as strong as the strongest human. They were the very embodiment of 'macho'.

There was a ritual the females did that shocked any human who heard of it. Despite the females horns having the sensation of touch, those that wished to prove themselves, would dip their horns into a variety of molten metals.

Some would go gold for the looks, some would go silver or even steel. The hues might be varied, but it was the resistance to the pain that impressed any taurian who saw them.

A taurian with coated horns, was not one to trifle with.

Not all taurians could brag that however. That was only a small fraction of the population that chose to follow through, but all female taurians were impressed and fantasised what it would be like to survive the torture and walk away a true 'alpha'.

Marues was not one that ever believed she could get her horns dipped. Her pain threshold was very low and did not consider dipping even close to what she would want.

An ear piercing, however, was.

"Aw it's going to *hurt*!" She moaned, pacing back and forth.

The human merely held the piercing gun in one hand while she observed the, rather large, stud in between two fingers.

"Only for a moment Maru, now come on. Sit down."

It was weird to see a taurian nervous. They were huge creatures, still small compared to an ursidain, but when the shortest female taurian was as big as Shaquille O'Neil? It was a odd concept to think they'd panic at the idea of an ear piercing.

"But it'll hurt!" Exclaimed Marues, holding her hands over her large ears.

"For a second, come on, sit down so we can look. I won't do it, I want to see how it works and where you want it."

The taurian complied, but made a point of saying 'only to look'.

The human touched various points on the taurian's ear before one section along the bottom was chosen. It was the thinnest section possible, but the stud would look good.

At least Marues had taste.

"Alright, I'm going to count down." Explained the human as she punched a hole through the taurian's ear, clamping the stud into place without hesitation.

The taurian closed her eyes and braced as the human stood up and went to wipe the puncher down, cleaning the needle.

"Like 3, 2, 1, go or or or 3, 2, go?" Asked the taurian, peeking one eye to watch the human clean the gun.

"Mm, I usually countdown from 10. Really get the nerves going." Grinned the human, placing the gun down and retrieving a mirror.

"What?! You're so mean! Don't do that!" Demanded Marues. She'd come to the human because *normally* they were kind! At least Marues knew the human wouldn't tell anyone how much of a weakling Marues was being about this.

"Alright, alright. How about... I fit it when you're not paying attention?"

The taurian leveled a glare at the human, who was holding the hand held mirror out to the larger alien.

"Har har. Can we get on with it? I'm freaking out!"

"Just check that I've got the spot right in the mirror."

The taurian looked at the mirror, then back to the human.

"Yeah, that's right. Let's do it!"

"Cool. Tadaa. Done."

The taurian frowned, before looking down.

Looking back up.

Looking down and turning her head to see her ear more clearly.

She even gingerly touched it, wincing a fraction.

Marues looked up, blinking, her muzzle-like mouth working but no words coming out. The human merely grinned and gave a wink before walking to the kitchen to get a drink.

[r/WolvensStories]

[Ko-Fi]