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Laios Touden awoke from arousing dreams to find himself lying in his bedroll, exactly the same as he always was.
What he'd been dreaming about, he was already beginning to forget, though the feeling of soft down, of heavy claws growing from his fingers and sharp teeth in his mouth lingered, and so did the warmth that had made its home in the pit of his stomach.
Unthinking and still half-asleep, his hand drifted under his tunic to take care of himself, but he paused as it brushed a weird, rough patch of skin on his lower stomach. Confused, he felt at it with his fingers, but it didn't hurt or itch, and it wasn't less sensitive like a callus would be.
No, if anything, it was more sensitive, and it felt kinda... nice.
Maybe he was still dreaming? He was pretty sure if he wasn't, he'd be a lot more concerned about a mysterious skin growth that wasn't there yesterday. Not only was he not concerned, but his erection hadn't gone down at all. No harm, then, in trailing his hand back down to deal with it, before the others woke up...
He slipped out of the courtyard where they'd made camp for the night, to the small lavatory that adjoined it, to clean himself. Of course, while he was in there, he took the opportunity to look underneath his tunic. He half-expected it to be nothing, just something he'd dreamed, or maybe the tiniest skin irritation left over from their encounter with the succubi yesterday, blown out of proportion by a confused, half-asleep mind.
But it was real. It was real and very visible, a thick splotch of skin rolling down his belly, vaguely pebbled in texture, dotted just beneath the surface with tiny somethings.
He ran his hands over it, with confusion, interest— but somehow, not alarm. It was hard to say why it didn't seem like a bad thing, especially when he traced his fingers around the edges of the growth and found it actually spread all the way up to his collarbone. This had to be something, but he couldn't recall any monster or dungeon hazard that would cause anything remotely like this. So maybe he'd just wait a while longer, see what happened with it, before he asked Marcille to heal it. That made sense. He was sure it did.
He tried to get his mind off it, as he returned to the courtyard, to Marcille doing her hair and Senshi heating up milk for porridge and Chilchuck trying to kick Izutsumi out of bed. As everyone cleaned up and set off after breakfast, to continue the long trek down through the abandoned dwarven city, he took up the head position as usual and tried, very hard, not to think about it.
To mixed results. The growth felt a little itchy beneath his smallclothes with his cuirass holding the fabric right against his skin, but he got used to it, eventually, if he moved carefully and didn't disturb it too much. What was distracting him more was the fact that he was... pretty horny. He hadn't really had much of a libido lately— this morning had been the first time he'd felt like jerking off in more than a week— so he was surprised that one orgasm hadn't taken care of it.
It was fine, though. Not like he needed to drop everything just to run off and give himself another one. He was perfectly fine, just a little distracted. Maybe his mind started drifting to places he didn't normally like to let it when he wasn't alone, places with rearranging bones and sprouting fur... but it wasn't like anyone could read his mind.
It was suddenly kinda nice, when he realized he was getting away with something, thinking about this stuff with the others none the wiser. Though it was only making the problem of his boner worse.
Then a few minutes later, Laios stumbled. Something suddenly felt off with his balance, a strange tightness at the base of his spine. The conversation he'd barely been paying attention to came to a halt, and when he looked back, Marcille was looking at him confused. He reassured everyone it was nothing, he'd just hit an uneven stone with his foot, but the feeling didn't go away when he started walking again.
It only felt odder as the minutes passed, until it felt like something was bundled up under his clothes, pressed against his leg, but also that his leg was pressed against... something else. A body part he shouldn't have had.
As soon as they passed a doorway, Laios made his excuses and rushed in alone. He stripped, and saw—
A tail.
A sleek, tawny tail, that swayed behind him as he freed it from his clothing. He flicked it a few times, reveling in the sensation of the air whooshing past its fur and the way it responded to his impulses, before swinging it forward and carefully taking it in his hands. His fingers smoothed down its length to the furry tuft at the end, and he could feel it all, and it was a tail, a tail that belonged to him, his very own tail—
He forced himself to take a deep breath. This was amazing, but how? Why? And what else was going to happen, what else was going to change?
The thought alone sent a shiver down his spine to the tip of his tail, and a warm flush spread over the thick skin on his front, where the regular pattern of under-the-surface somethings had gotten a bit closer to poking through.
He suddenly really, really needed to jerk off again. Afterwards, he cleaned himself up and tucked everything away— tail and all— and went back outside, pretending that nothing had happened.
It became hard to pretend, when things kept changing over the next day-and-a-half. First there was more discomfort against his cuirass, this time in the back, feeling kind of like when his leg hair got flattened in all the wrong directions when he wore tight socks. That, and the warmth he was beginning to feel, told him he was probably developing a pelt back there.
Then his fingernails began sharpening, thickening, as they grew out into substantial claws— that was a bit uncomfortable, causing a strange feeling of tightness in his fingertips, and he was sure someone was going to notice them— but while Chilchuck gave him a shifty look as he tried to hold his hands away from the view of his partymates behind him, nobody seemed to figure out the reason why he'd done that.
The claws also made it a lot harder for him to masturbate, which was a shame, because he really really needed to by the end of the day. But he had to go slow that night, still not used to them and not wanting to accidentally scratch or puncture his own skin.
It still felt good, though. It still felt really good.
When he awoke the next morning, before anyone else, bundled tightly in his bedroll so no one would see the fur or the tail or the claws, he rolled onto his back and a strange, airy warmth nestled itself against his chest. When he parted the blanket to look, he found a voluminous chest ruff of cream-colored feathers.
He grinned, in spite of himself. It only got wider as he felt something new against his back, and reached underneath himself with clawed hands to feel two small, pinfeathered wings beginning to develop at his shoulderblades.
Could he keep going like this? Surely not. At some point he wouldn't be able to put on his armor. But that was a problem for the future, not right now, and— would it really be that much of a problem at all?
Chilchuck gave him another weird look as he re-entered their camping spot for the night, after another break to "freshen up." It didn't really matter, Laios had decided; Chilchuck and the others could think whatever they wanted. Laios was doing just fine.
Every successive change only felt more right, more comfortable. Horns began to bloom against his skull, to erupt from his choppy hair; his hands were starting to take a more pawlike shape, and judging by the way his feet were feeling in his boots, they were following suit. He was sure, too, that he was seeing, hearing, smelling differently than he was before, which made sense— tallmen had especially dull senses, after all. All the time, he was just getting more and more horny, and it was hard to come up with a reason why he should fight it. The others were noticing something was up by now, maybe— not that he was paying attention.
But then things came to a head that night. He'd just taken care of what was now his nightly ritual, stripping down, examining his body's new changes, and jerking off. It'd been especially hard to get himself under control this time, though; a warm buzz had settled in under his skin and he'd come three or four times in quick succession before he'd started to calm down a little. He stumbled toward the campfire, hoping to get to sleep fast so it'd be easier to ride out the almost painful throbbing of arousal.
Instead, as he fought to lie down and settle in under the blanket, he felt unbearably hot, and beyond that, he felt the now-familiar strangeness of his body changing again. Like he was growing, like his smallclothes were tightening around him, like he could feel his own bones growing underneath his muscles—
He was gripped with a sudden, crystal-clear thought. This was it. This was the last change, and after it, there would be no trace of human left in him. He was burning up— he didn't even know if he'd fit in the room when it was all over—
He stumbled back to his feet, and rushed off.
Chilchuck stood outside the room, leaning against the door Laios had nearly splintered in his rush to slam it shut just a minute ago. He hadn't even knocked yet, and already he knew in his bones that this was a bad idea.
He knew that, despite knowing that, he was about to do it anyway.
It had been obvious that Laios was acting weird— weirder than usual— since their encounter with the succubi. You wouldn't even need to be able to hear his furious jerking off every time he separated from the rest of the party to figure that out, though Chilchuck, regrettably, could. But no one else seemed to know why Laios was acting so weird, and Chilchuck had at least a strong suspicion, which had seemed to make this his problem.
Was it a good idea to try and deal with this alone? To interrupt Laios mid-jerk? Of course it wasn't. But Chilchuck wasn't exactly going to ask Marcille or Senshi or Izutsumi for backup. And he couldn't leave Laios alone like this, not while he suspected things might get really bad. Leed's words echoed in his head, and for what felt like the thousandth time, he wished to himself that they hadn't been true.
He knocked on the door, adding in a "Oi, Laios," for good measure. No response came from the other side, just the muffled sound of skin against skin and ragged panting that indicated Laios hadn't even bothered to stop.
That at least meant that picking the lock and forcing open the door wouldn't be such a gross violation of privacy, right? The tallman was clearly unwell, Chilchuck's hunch was correct, and there was nothing weird about busting in to save him.
He gritted his teeth. Yeah, no. No justification is gonna make this not weird, and I have to do it anyway. Let's get this over with.
He pushed open the door and, at length, peered around it into the room. And even though he'd been expecting pretty damn bad, this was worse.
Laios was completely naked near the back of the room. It appeared that he'd literally torn his smallclothes off himself, as Chilchuck saw shredded edges to the fabric scattered across the floor. He was pitched over, forehead against the floor, actively snarling as he worked himself, and he hadn't even slowed down when Chilchuck had come in.
But in a moment, his head did slowly turn toward the source of the noise, and Chilchuck really didn't like the way he was looking at him, but he wasn't quick enough in stumbling away— Laios lunged at him like some kind of beast and grabbed him by the boot, sending him falling helplessly to the floor.
Chilchuck groaned in frustration as he was dragged back across the stone floor. In fairness, this hadn't been at all what he was expecting. It must have been the succubi that had caused this, and Chilchuck was intimately familiar with what a dosing of succubus eggs did to a person. Aggression was not one of the side effects. For most people, under the influence of succubus eggs, it wouldn't have even been possible to fight, let alone... whatever this was. Was it somehow part of the hallucinations Laios was doubtless experiencing? Was this what he was into? That was an uncomfortable thought.
Laios pulled Chilchuck under himself, boxing him in with thick, muscular arms. He was burning up, Chilchuck could feel the heat radiating out from his skin even from this distance. Then he bared his teeth, and lunged down— Chilchuck flinched, closing his eyes, and felt a tug at his jerkin before the leather ties at the front gave way and Laios began tearing it off.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.
A memory came to him. It was back when he was still green to the adventuring business, too much so to recognize when a party's offer was too good to be true. Most of it was hazy in his mind, even now.
He hadn't been able to get out of his bedroll. He didn't know how long it had been since the rest of his party had gotten up and left. All he could do was stare at the torches on the walls.
Before his eyes, they shifted and morphed into dancing women, nude and golden-tressed. Even though he was far from them, lying on the cold stone floor, he might as well have been right next to the flame, the way he was burning up. Phantom fingers, searing hot, licked up and down his skin. He couldn't breathe under the oppressive heat, he was going to cook if it went on much longer. The last thing he should have been doing was jerking himself raw. But, well. He didn't seem to have much of a choice in the matter.
There was a shout from the other room— one of his tallman partymates.
"Yeah, he's definitely got 'em!"
Then he was being grabbed by soft hands— wait, no, those were leather gloves— and nestled close to an ample bosom— no, it was a breastplate.
"Listen close, Chilchuck. Something must have went bad— you're seeded with succubus eggs. It's very important you get 'em out. The water should help!"
"W... water?"
Then he was tossed into a room they'd cased the night before, the one with the fountain, the one where they'd been attacked— and shut the door behind him.
"Take care of yourself. And do it quick— if they stay in you long enough they'll start to hatch."
That was probably bullshit, Chilchuck figured, cooked up to scare him into complying, not that he'd needed any extra motivation to come as fast as humanly possible. He could have asked Laios if it was true, if Laios wasn't currently... well.
Back in the present, he twisted under Laios's grip, which was mercifully uncoordinated in his hallucinative stupor. Bad enough that he was stuck underneath the tallman, but he could at least get fucked on his own terms. Laios had flipped him onto his stomach, in his attempts to strip him with his teeth alone, but Chilchuck was able to roll back over easily enough. He was not taking that thing in the ass. He could offer his thighs, though, as long as he was positioned in a way that negated all chance of slippage.
And Laios, honestly, probably couldn't tell the difference. Knowing him, he might not have even been aware that it was a human underneath him right now. (Gross thought! Keep that to yourself next time! Chilchuck reprimanded his own brain.) His cock plunged into the space Chilchuck had made for him, and even though it was better than any alternative, Chilchuck flinched with the movement. Laios was strong, in a way that he usually held back when not fighting monsters, but there was no restraint here, and it was frightening to be at the mercy of that strength.
Laios grabbed his hips, steadying himself for more wild thrusts. That had to be hard enough to bruise.
"S-shit," Chilchuck said under his breath, which was definitely not a whimper. "I can't ask Marcille to heal any of this— you'd better not dislocate anything..."
He should have been worrying about his neck instead of his hips, it turned out, because Laios dove his head down and started savaging it, as if he'd just realized Chilchuck was there when he'd spoken. Chilchuck found himself begging him to stop, his demands falling on deaf ears. Skin moved against skin, while Chilchuck finally escaped Laios's mouth and instead ended up smashed against his furnace of a chest.
And in this position, it actually felt a bit...
His cock was starting to react to the much larger one sliding past it. The arousal building in his gut was a jumpy thing, tempered by the edge of pain and the threat of more, but flaring up unpredictably from moment to moment. He groaned as Laios dragged his cock almost fully out of the space between his thighs and it rubbed right against his own burgeoning erection. And when Laios slammed his hips forward again, Chilchuck's face ended up buried in his chest, muscular but surprisingly soft, dusted with downy blond hair. Maybe... maybe this wasn't so bad, after all. Or at least, maybe he could make the best of it! Laios at least owed him that much.
He keened, pressing down and shifting his legs to get more of that friction. Laios reacted immediately, grabbing his hips with renewed vigor and angling him up and wait wait shit no— all that building arousal went up in a flash as Laios's cock pressed up against the cleft of his ass, and a thrust at the right angle would mean splitting it open.
Just then, Laios cried out, a bestial growl that signalled him spilling out against the floor beneath Chilchuck. He drew himself back, smearing semen between Chilchuck's thighs, and then slammed forward again— it went on in waves, Laios making progressively higher and more desperate noises, until— he collapsed on top of the unfortunate half-foot.
He could feel them in the mess beneath him, in the pool of come collecting between his asscheeks— the tiny eggs, held together in loose jellylike clusters. And as if on cue, Laios's cock finally started to go flaccid, and Chichuck would have breathed a sigh of relief— if he could breathe, crushed under his chest as he was.
"Laios," he squeaked out with the last of the air in his lungs. "Laios!"
The tallman mumbled something incoherent and rolled off of Chilchuck, coming to a stop right after, a limp pile on the floor.
His chest rose and fell out of the corner of Chilchuck's eye as he took the opportunity to catch his breath. Finally he spoke in a ragged voice.
"I'm... I'm human again..."
"You never stopped," Chilchuck said, and then "so that's what the snarling was about," and then "wait, why was that your— never mind, I don't want to know, actually!"
Laios, luckily, was still five or six steps behind. "Chilchuck? What are you... what happened?"
"Uh, long story. It's all fine now."
Chilchuck could feel Laios's eyes on his as he resolutely continued staring at the ceiling.
"Did I... did I do something weird?"
"It doesn't matter. You didn't even know what you were. Plus," he added, scooping up a cooling handful of eggs, "you were under the influence of these."
"Wait, succubus eggs? Really?!" Of course he'd heard of them, and of course he was suddenly brimming with excitement about them. "Oh man, no wonder... but I guess I'm the only one who got hit? That's good, at least! Uh, right?"
"Yeah, it was just you."
"Then... so when we... I..."
"Like I said. You didn't have any control, so there's nothing to be sorry about," Chilchuck said, finally sitting up and starting to look through his shed clothing for anything salvageable.
What had just happened was bad enough; he didn't need to hear Laios apologizing for it on top of everything else. It wouldn't change a thing.