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Forbidden Love

Chapter Two

© Cederwyn Whitefurr

4th May, 2023

All Rights Reserved.

This Week's Writing Challenge: The hills held a deep, dark secret.

At least 1000 words, don't worry if you go over.

Tag all prompts with: WritingGroupChallenge.

Add all prompts to a separate folder.

Put the prompt description at the beginning of your story.

"Urgh..." Ethan gurgled, tasting blood in his mouth, as he fought the sickening nausea that swept over him. "Fell..."

Something, moist, soft, elusive... touched his leg and he nearly passed out then and there, his hooves skittering...

Hooves... no, oh no, no, NO! Ethan wanted to scream, but he could barely make a weak, exhausted moan.

A sudden intake of breath, then a gasp made his blood-spattered eyelids force themselves open. He saw a deer - well it _looked_like a deer - before his vision doubled, and trembled, then as he shuddered and squeezed them closed, he felt another lick - a long, wet tongue along his sweat-soaked flank.

Again, that gasp, and this time, when he forced open his eyes, he saw an imposing figure. A deer, a red deer, stood beside him, its head tilted back and body quivering as its bloodied tongue swirled and vanished into its mouth. Its head looked down, then cocked to the side, ears flicking forwards.

"Who...what...are you?" It asked, voice quiet as a spring breeze and distinctly feminine.

"Please...help - " Ethan gurgled, tasting blood in his throat, which he forcibly swallowed. "Please...don't... hurt me - "

Her eyes went wide, her long, tubular ears flicking forwards as she smiled slowly.

"Hurt? No..." Her voice was quiet, and calm, but thick with a Scottish accent that made it difficult for him to comprehend through the sickening pain in his head. "I'mEilidh - I saved..."

Blackness once more swept over Ethan plunging him into the abyss of nothingness.

*

Did he spend hours? Days? He didn't know - in and out of consciousness, he felt her tongue bathe him, sometimes it was a wet, warm rag. Sometimes she would lift his head and pour vile, poisonous liquids down his throat, then hold his muzzle shut and rub it until he forcibly swallowed. Day by day, his wounds began to heal - but whatever she fed him, dragged him back into the darkness again and again.

"Wake Buck!" Eilidh murmured one morning, lightly tweaking his left ear tip.

Fighting the grogginess he swam back to consciousness, finding himself laying on a straw pallet bed, covered with large deer hides, the fur pressed against his own, warming him.

"Awake?" Eilidh asked, then held a bowl of broth up to his muzzle. "Strange Buck! Drink, make you better."

"I'm...water...please?" Ethan gurgled.

"Drink, now - or I'll pour it down your throat!" Eilidh growled suddenly, her ears slicking back in annoyance. "Deer healing, need food."

His left ear twitched, trying to unscramble the confusing dialect - he understood one word in five - but her facial features spoke volumes. Fearfully, he sipped from the broth, finding it way stronger with salt than even he preferred - and the taste of... something, elusive...

"Cousin neck bones and meat!" Come her words. "Hunted him myself - nice stag, good meat - eat!"

Venison? Ethan gagged, trying to throw up, but she clamped a large paw over his muzzle and held it shut, glaring at him.

"Cousin gave life to heal deer, deer refuses to eat? You insult cousin!"

"Mmmph - " Ethan gurgled, her large paw covering his smaller nostrils.

With a sigh, she let him go and Ethan drew some shuddering breaths and looked down at the broth.

It's wild deer, not like you haven't eaten it before...

"Eat or I'll pour it down deer throat!" Come her frustrated growl, this time, more forceful and borderline bestial, her ears flattening.

He shuddered, then nervously took the wooden bowl from her and began gulping it down. When it was empty, she took it from him and set it aside, her eyes growing wider and wider, before she leaned forwards and sniffed him... as a feral deer would.

Wait...she's got paws, and fur and...but she's not... like me...

He shook his head, trying to sweep away the last vestiges of whatever that...drug...was she'd fed him. It'd put him under, but not just under, but under... nothing human-made, could put a Therian down like that...

"Wake buck!" She sighed and tweaked his left ear tip again between thumb and index finger.

"Urgh, trying!" He moaned, then twitched as pain come down on him like a hammer. His left leg felt like bone grinding against bone, below the knee - it was broken, he was certain of it. His head pounded like someone with an iron mallet was inside his skull and as he breathed in, he felt the abysmal ache of at _least_six broken ribs.

"Ware!" She whispered, placing her paw on his shoulder. "Hurt bad."

_No kidding..._Ethan shuddered, and even _that_hurt terribly.

"Ethan - " He murmured. "My name...is Ethan... you're..."

Standing up, he saw she wore a rough spun robe that covered her from neck to ankle. Frustrated, she crossed her paws, and then to his surprise, she pulled the robe off, standing as naked as the day as she was born before him. He took her in, _all_of her, feeling his ears burning as he blushed.

"A doe..." He shuddered and looked away, embarrassed and guilty.

Placing a paw on an ample breast, she smiled and nodded at him. "I'm Eilidh!"

He managed a weak smile, glancing from the corner of his eye, taking in her slender, elegant head, those leaf-like ears, and large, expressionate brown eyes. From chin down to her inner thighs, it was a beautiful snow-white, and as she turned about he saw the very distinctive white rump patch, easily identifying her as a Red Deer. Her long, well-muscled legs ended in cloven hooves that were easily double his in size.

A slow, weak exhalation made her ears flick and she glanced over her shoulder, giving him a gentle smile.

"Buck like?"

He smiled nervously, then looked away, feeling stirrings where he shouldn't - and didn't - want. "You're...very beautiful."

He trembled, then nervously brought the deerskin blanket up to his chin.

Eilidh smiled and thankfully, put her robe back on, covering herself again as she sat down, folding one long leg over the other.

"Deer..." Eilidh frowned and swallowed, then smiled. "Sorry, words... not used much - here -"

With a gesture of her paw, she encompassed her cottage. "Prefer _other_form..."

With a shiver, Ethan nodded understandingly. "You're... like me, a..."

Her head cocked to the side as Eilidh frowned.

"Me? I'm a Therian..."

"I know, blood tells me, but...not like me - is...strange."

Ethan nodded. "I'm a...Whitetail, does that mean anything to you? Have you heard of my kind?"

Eilidh shook her head, her ears twitching. "No. Can teach me?"

He sighed and winced in pain; before he shivered involuntarily.

"I can try Eilidh - I..." He swallowed and a low, whimpering moan escaped him.

"More drink, make deer sleep, deer heal!" Eilidh nodded, then quickly turned away and filled the bowl, then held it under his nose.

"No, please..." He began, then she pinched his ear, making him gasp and she poured it down his throat, once more rubbing it until he gurgled and swallowed the bitter liquid.

She smiled and set the bowl aside, gently rubbing his throat, then gazing at him.

"Wha..."

Once more, whatever the potent drug was, swept him away in its current...

TO BE CONTINUED...