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*Greetings, my dear readers! I come to you on this dark hour with some tasty human on gryphon action to lighten your day (or nights) up. Thanks to Pearldragon , our graceful sponsor, we get to see how the next chapter of Naran and Lira's adventure unfolds. I can't be the only one who thought things ended up rather abruptly last time, eh? In this chapter, we get to see more of everything. Lira's heat continues to be rather bothersome, while Naran struggles with a difficult decision. What that might be, you ask? *

*Read and find out! *

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***

"Go for a midnight flight. Chase a Riverlands Stripedpaws--mate with one, even. Other female gryphons do just that while you talk, talk, talk." Naran drew in a deep breath as Lira's smooth, charming voice rippled through the clearing. Such a melodious tune, laden with the weight of unnecessary and slightly irritating words.

Ever since they settled for the night, her beak didn't pause a second. Unnecessary worries, exaggerated affirmations, even veiled blackmailing found its way into her monologue. Naran thumped his feet idly on the ground while she, for the eleventh time, chided him for his poor self preservation instinct while dealing with the bandits.

They were dead. Lira and he killed them all. Why did the outcome still matter?

Naran focused on the sizzle of the skewered rabbits that seared over the campfire. He listened to the pitter patter of the dripping oil, hissing against the searing charcoals. Yet, over the savory scents wafting from the skewers and the pleasant sound of cooking meat, flowed her voice.

"....that." She stomped a front paw, and Naran's gaze shot towards her. "Typical for a human, to drool at the food while waiting for it to cook, as if that makes the flames grow stronger."

"They don't have to be strong, else I'll be eating charcoal," Naran said.

"Dead men can't eat, Naran. You'd be one of them if those bandits didn't drink so much during the day."

"At least I wouldn't have to put up with all this," Naran shot. "Being dead and all."

Lira cocked her head and crossed her talons. "Your race still chants before their graves. If they hear something down there, then so would you."

"You made your point." Naran grabbed his three-pronged stick to nudge the skewered rabbits away from the hungry, ruddy tongues. "I can't kill three drunken bandits who stumble rather than charge at me without getting wounded. I'm so weak and fragile I should let you carry me to a tree to piss."

Lira clacked her beak, hard enough to send a shudder along Naran's spine. "Would you let me?"

Naran threw her a glance. She laid on her belly right in front of him, a safe distance away from the fire and its rippling heat. Her emerald eyes shimmered with vermilion hues as she stared at the flames, and her talons curled in around themselves.

"Your pride is worse than a gryphon's," she said.

Naran chuckled. "Nothing is worse than a gryphon's pride."

"You are."

"Stripedpaws, apart from their midnight coats and silvery striped limbs, share a great deal of similarities with gryphons. Even their cocks are..."

Lira buffeted her wings, sending debris flying in Naran's direction. Naran shot onto his feet and yelped as a blanket of dust turned the auburn meat darker than it had the right to be. He gritted his teeth, glared at her, then sat back on his boulder, grimacing at the pain. The cut along his thigh burned hotter than his campfire. His arm throbbed where a cudgel connected with it, and the bruises lined up along his ribs, stomach and back pulsated with every single heartbeat.

"You only grimace like that when you have to relieve yourself." Lira shuffled onto her feet. "Do I have to carry you?"

Naran smiled wryly at her and raised a finger. "Gryphon humor. Come up with something that is worse than that."

"You, dead, lying under my wing in a pool of your blood."

Naran's stomach sank. Cold shivers crept through him, drawing soft gasps and yelps as his wounds flared to life. "Not going to happen."

"It will if you keep charging into battles for thrill's sake."

"Riiight," Naran drawled as he nodded slowly. "I, your redundant wing mate, have to stand cross legged in front of a fire, sipping wine while you fight."

Lira chirped in delight. "I'd like that."

"Oh, wouldn't you." Naran crouched before his fire and rotated the skewers to allow the rabbits to cook on the other side as well. "We would switch roles, nothing more. I'd be the one talking, and you'd be the one grimacing from your wounds."

Lira raised her head and let out a defiant squeak. "From the little bandits poking their metal toothpicks at a too agile and experienced gryphon?" She pointed a talon at him. "Next mission, you let me dispatch them. All of them. If they draw as much as a drop of scarlet upon my feathers, I'll give you my shinies for the month."

Naran shook his head. "You're already giving me your shinies."

"For safe keeping," she emphasized. "Until I find a nest and a mate to fill it."

Silence followed. Her gaze drooped, her posture slouched and her tail wrapped around a wing. "Deal?"

"Deal," Naran responded with half a mouth. His lips pursed, and his breath grew shallow. If Lira loved herself as much as she loved him, she could had had a clutch by now. Instead, she chided him for the wounds he got in a battle that wasn't hers to fight.

Naran brooded over the rebellious thought as he listened to the crackling of searing wood. The gryphons had sought the aid of humans to drive the wyverns away. Everybody knew that, yet few questioned the necessity of the bond centuries after the last wyvern perished. It was practical to use gryphons in human warfare--efficient, as the Lord Commander put it.

"Find a mate," Naran found himself whispering. The words tugged at his heart with painful wrenches. His knees buckled, and his chest tightened, drawing the breath out of him. Yet still, Naran spoke, louder and louder. "Leave me, Lira. What are you doing, fighting petty bandits while you're in heat? Your instincts scream at you for attention. Heed them."

He somehow found the courage to look into her eyes. "I'll be a farmer, a tailor, a spell crafter, you name whatever boring craft you can think of. Leave the bandits to other gryphons and their wing mates. I can even come by to see the chicks when--"

"Eat," she said with a stern clap of her beak.

Infuriating relief washed over Naran. His taut muscles relaxed against his will, and his wounds suddenly hurt less. Why? Why was he so selfish?!

Naran swallowed the lump in his throat and grabbed a skewer. "And after this?"

"You extinguish the fire and I help you to your constantly aching feet."

"I won't need help."

"That cut along your thigh begs to differ."

"I don't need help," Naran pressed.

Lira squawked in displeasure, but added nothing to the argument. She stretched out a wing and began preening herself while Naran feasted in silence. Her beak flowed across the smooth plumes of her wings, nipping at them with practiced dexterity before moving down her lower belly. Lira lifted her haunch to reveal her wet, pink blossom. She chirped softly, then dabbed at it with her beak.

Naran stiffened. "Isn't that...a bit sharp?" he finished when Lira's gaze met his.

"It itches and throbs," Lira said as she brushed her tail against her slit instead. She only managed to smear her arousal and get more irritated in the process. "Instincts and urges. These are the worst aspects of a gryphon."

A chuckle burst from Naran's throat, forcing him to spit a mouthful of meat. "That's my quip you just stole."

"You said featherheads steal, so I'm only meeting your expectations." She rolled onto her side, one hind paw aloft and a wing unfurled to make room for the talon sliding across her belly.

"Lira don't." Naran swallowed hard to prevent chocking when he realized what she was doing. "There is only one thing meant to enter you, and it's a bit less sharp than your talons."

Her head twisted towards Naran. "Your fingers did, Naran, so that makes it several things." She planted her forepaws onto the ground and rolled onto her belly. "You can either come here and stop me, or wait and watch."

Her voice shook with lust, or desperation, or maybe both. Naran bit his lower lip and swallowed the last mouthful of meat. He rested the skewer atop the same boulder that held his saddlebags, then got onto his feet with a wince and a lurch. His wounded thigh protested by sending waves of raw pain through his frame.

Lira's ears perked. Her wings stiffened, and a soft coo left her half parted beak before she darted towards him. She covered the distance between them in two strides and pushed her chest against Naran while her neck directed him into the soft embrace of her feathers.

"I can walk, you bloody inconsiderate buzzard." Naran chuckled and groped her neck with stiff, greasy fingers. "Think about my pride and the things you said about it."

"You didn't walk, you wobbled," Lira said before she drew back to allow him enough room to stand rather than stoop. "I didn't mean to interrupt your dinner."

"Nah, you didn't," Naran said with a flick of his wrist. "I was done anyway. The rest is for packing and the long journey home. Now sit and let me groom you."

She nipped his thumb with the tip of her beak hard enough to make him yelp. "Grime me, you mean. There are juices all over your hands."

Naran wiped himself on his leggings. "Not any longer."

Lira didn't argue with that. She trilled softly as she settled onto her belly, one wing aloft for Naran to curl under.

He wrapped an arm around her neck instead and stroked her nape while fondling an ear with his other hand. "What you were about to do is bloody moronic, Lira."

She blinked her piercing leaf-green eyes. "I never inserted anything in there. I heard tales of human ladies using vegetables and other smooth objects to ease their burden." Her voice dropped to a hushed whisper as the gryphoness turned her head away from Naran.

He simply laughed out loud, dropped onto his knees and hugged her neck. "You heard. There's your issue, believing nonsensical tales simply because they seem convenient."

"I don't know what to believe, Naran. This heat is...it's-" Her voice shattered into soft squeaks as she brushed her head against his stomach.

Naran placed his palms on the sides of her beak and rubbed her, flaring her squeaks a pitch higher. "Believe in the possibility of finding a gryphon mate."

She drew her head back at that, her ears flat against her skull. "What can a gryphon do that you can't?"

Naran froze. Strength seeped from his limbs, replaced by creeping weakness. She had asked him this question the day before, and he didn't have an answer to it. Now, when his eyelids drooped and his temples throbbed, finding that answer seemed a most distant possibility.

"I can't mate with you for a dozen reasons, Lira," he blurted out.

"Name one."

"Well," Naran scratched his head while searching for the proper words. "It's a trick, the deepest form of deceit. It may seem fulfilling to have me inside you, but no eggs will grow in your belly."

She rested her chin onto his shoulder, trilling. "Put yourself inside me first, and then concern yourself with the implications of our coupling."

Naran closed his eyes and took a deep breath to still his raging blood. It surged through his veins, empowering his ache and rousing his sleeping member.

Lira's head twitched and an excited squeak escaped her as her tail began to swing back and forth with impatience. Her eyes followed Naran's fingers as they slid to his waist to grip the seams of his leggings. Her beak clacked due to excitement as he groped them ever so softly.

As soon as she blinked, Naran reached into his pockets, pulled out the Amulet of Binding, clutched it in his fist and recited its incantation before throwing it on top of Lira's forepaws. The gryphoness only managed a sharp caw before several smooth and flexible roots burst from the ground to wrap around her forelegs. They coiled around her forepaws, squeezing her in a tight embrace before the emeralds in the amulet faded to blackness.

Lira didn't squirm, or shriek, or flap her wings. She merely stared at Naran, her ears erect and her beak sealed tight. "You kept that amulet in your pocket when that pockmarked bandit charged you. He slashed you across your thigh and battered your enchanted chainmail until the wards wore off. And still, you didn't use it, or call for me." She cocked her head and tucked her wings tighter against her sides. "Is my heat more dangerous than his blade?"

"More unpredictable for sure," Naran rasped. His throat became as dry as his thoughts. "I couldn't let you put a talon inside yourself. That can cause more harm than good."

"And depleting an amulet that requires shinies to be recharged seemed the better alternative?"

Naran nodded, and Lira released her audible sigh before her beak pecked at the thinner roots.

"It will take you until morning to break through them."

"Better think of what I'll do when I'm free of your bindings," Lira said as she cut a thin root in half. It grew back as soon as she switched to a thicker one, curled around her limbs and fled back into the ground.

"Or I can think of means to distract you and slow you down long enough for the sun to rise. You'll go hunt, I'll have breakfast, and then we'll fly home together."

Lira didn't answer over the steady thumps of her beak pounding at the roots. She tried shifting her body and tugging her forelimbs, but she only squawked in displeasure when the roots chaffed her wrists.

Naran grabbed one of her fallen plumes that rested on the dried, shriveled grass and fondled it between two fingers as he shuffled towards her.

"You are as stupid as they say, Naran," Lira said in between her efforts to cut through her tethers. "You fight along me out of principle, use expensive magic to prevent me from harming myself, and urge me to find a mate when I'm still here during my fifth day of heat." Her head swung towards him. "That's why I love you, and you alone."

Naran stopped in his tracks. He expected some wicked things to escape from that devious beak of hers, but not this. His stomach lurched as butterflies filled it to the brim, his heart fluttered, and his head became light--so light, he floated rather than walking towards Lira--his Lira.

"Chasing a mate means trading away the time I have you. It means passing on opportunities that prove me how inferior humans are compared to gryphons."

Naran smiled, so wide his lips hurt. "No gryphon can put up with your temper, so you pester me instead. That's what you're saying."

Lira stopped her struggles to break free and rested on her side. "Possibly. The few we've met are a sliver of what you are to me, Naran."

What am I?

Naran clenched his jaws to keep that question contained. He knew the answer--feared it more than he feared death.

He sat besides Lira, his back rested against her shoulder and one hand placed on top of her light brown brow. "We can't just let your heat pass without any other awkward incidents, can we?"

"Gryphons mate whenever they please."

"And there's nothing I can do to change your mind?"

Lira dug her beak into his chest and let out a series of melodious squawks. "You tried. Don't further embarrass yourself."

Naran smirked. "I can distract you."

Before Lira had time to process his words, Naran grabbed her beak with one hand and brushed the tip of the plume against the sensitive leathery sides of her beak.

Lira shot back, shrieking and squirming before her eyes fixated on Naran's plume. Her beak thrust forward to grab it, but Naran swung it to the side and out of her reach.

"You said you can tickle me to death. Let's see how well you fare, dear Lira."

Naran tried to grip her beak and hold her still, but her strength far outmatched his. She only had to jerk her head to send him toppling over her forelegs and roll him onto his back with a mere nudge.

"Better than you," she squeaked, only to thrust her head back when Naran brushed the feather against the entire left side of her beak. Her nostrils flared, and her beak stretched wide open to let out an almighty sneeze.

Naran shielded his ears against it, leaving his stomach wide open for her feathery head to rub against. Lira took the opportunity to brush the sides of her beak against Naran in turns, in spite of his thrashing limbs and kicking legs. He managed to roll away from the onslaught, panting over Lira's mirthful croaks.

"You devious crow," Naran growled.

Lira sprawled her wings and flapped them thrice. The gusts of wind sent all of her fallen plumes flying, leaving Naran unarmed in his battle to subdue this blasted bird.

"Nothing is more devious than using my own plumes against me."

"You know what? I don't even need them. There are more sensitive spots I can exploit."

Naran rolled onto his stomach, pushed himself up and strode towards her exposed flank. His fingers latched onto the base of her wing. It was thick, meaty, smooth, with only fluff to cover it. He threw her a glance. "I know my gryphon anatomy, Lira," he said before he scratched at the soft fluff of her wing joint and dabbed at the sensitive skin underneath.

"Doesn't seem so," she chirped defiantly.

Naran pressed his fingers into it. The effect was immediate. Lira lashed out with her hind paws, flailing them up and down while her tail whipped at Naran's side furiously. He gritted his teeth against the strong, stinging lashes and kept rubbing at Lira's wing joint with gleeful determination.

Her breath grew labored within seconds. No matter how she squeaked and squirmed, or how hard she flapped her wing, Naran's fingers remained lodged into that sweet spot, kneading at it with abandon.

Lira's squeaks turned into shrieks, and her toes flexed in an effort to get those claws latched onto Naran's swaying form. He drew back, towards Lira's feathered half, when her back arched and her hind paws gained a few inches closer to his torso. He backed away so much his grip faltered on Lira's beating wing.

That's when her hind paw caught him square in the chest, sending him down on his back with a muffled scream.

Lira's head loomed over him a second after, her wide eyes full of concern. "That's why you shouldn't tickle me. You are too fragile for your own good."

Naran grabbed her beak to pull it close enough for a kiss. "And you're so damn ticklish."

Lira squawked and pulled him close enough to her side with her talons to rest a hind paw on top of his gut.

"You remember the last time I had my paw on your stomach?"

Naran nodded.

"The outcome as well?"

"Me pleading for mercy. Only, I'm done with games." Naran grabbed her paw instead and began stroking her smooth pads with slow, gentle movements. "You had enough."

She let out a murmuring trill under Naran's pleasant caress.

Her meaty, central pad was as big as his palm, and the bean shaped toes slightly smaller, yet still bigger than his own fingers. She twitched slightly in his grip, but her mellow chirp betrayed her. She enjoyed it, so much her pads turned damp as she grew more aroused from Naran's tantalizing strokes.

"How comes your feet are more receptive than your own beak?" Naran inquired.

"We use them to test the ground's texture, to feel the softness of the materials we use to build the nests." She flexed her toes for a quick demonstration and then curled them inwards around his fingers. "Males have coarser pads and longer talons, while females have soft, meaty pads for this purpose alone."

Naran groped one of her toes between two fingers and squeezed it until Lira's paw jerked in his grip. "Isn't your eyesight good enough for that? For feathers' sake, you pierce the veil of night like it is bright daylight."

"We're not birds, Naran. Get that silly thought out of your head. Birds perch, gryphons lounge. That means the comfort of a nest matters a great deal, even more so for the chicks."

It made sense, even more so when her paw sweated from their combined heat. Her pads were warmer than his skin, and oozed out a faint, pheromone-filled fragrance meant to lure potential mates and lead them straight to a female's nest. The more Naran rubbed Lira's paw, the stronger the sweet, earthy fragrance grew.

He got up, still squeezing Lira's paw between his hands while moving towards her hindquarters. Lost in her bliss, with her head sprawled on the side and her eyes half closed, Lira didn't even notice him slinking past her lower belly and jumping over her other paw. Naran crouched, grabbed it in his other hand, and stroked it several times before his eyes shifted to the dry patch of fluff nestled between the crevices separating her toes.

He smirked, then brushed the tip of a finger against it in repeated strokes, so fast Lira kicked her hind paws and jerked in her tethers hard enough. She cried out as her body twisted more than her bound limbs allowed. A jolt of panic ran through Naran, stunning him for the brief moment Lira needed to shove him onto his butt with a well placed thrust of a paw.

Naran grunted before he broke into a fit of laughter. "That small patch of fur is your one greatest weakness."

"I dare you to get anywhere near it again."

Naran threw her a side glance, winked, and pulled out a second Amulet of Binding from his other pocket. Lira shrieked and writhed in desperation, only to fall silent once roots fastened her hind paws together. Naran knelt before her bound paws, staring at her coal black pads. He smiled at their pleasant shape and at how her toes flexed and relaxed.

"I'll take mercy on you, though you can always plead like I did. Worked for me," Naran said before he grabbed her paws in each hand. Lira tensed up at first, squeaking in distress, but Naran only fondled with her toes and caressed her central pads. They bore such exquisite shape, and the claws poking from the sheaths of her toes were sharp enough to rake the skin off the offending limbs. Lira, however, didn't curl her toes inwards, nor did she protract her claws past their very tip. She probably fought hard to suppress her instinct to claw at Naran's hands, yet he wasn't about to let her loose. Not before she got a taste of her own medicine.

He started with the patch of wan fur trapped between her dark pads, rubbing it slow at first and harder and faster once Lira's toes curled inwards and her wings flapped with abandon. Raw shrieks burst from her throat, and her eyes turned bleary with tears as the gryphoness squirmed and thrashed.

"That doesn't--even tickle--it's more--enjoyable than you think," Lira said it through her ragged huffs.

"Then you'll like this as much as I will," Naran said. He grabbed one of her paws right under the pads with one hand, curled the fingers of his free hand into a whisk, and drove them between her pads and into the crevices surrounding them.

Lira's body stiffened for a fleeting moment before her paw jerked in Naran's grasp. She shook it, so hard and fast he had trouble holding it still. Then, her claws left their sheaths just as her toes curled enough to drive the sharp tips into Naran's skin. He hissed from the searing pain, but didn't let go of her paw. He continued to wriggle his fingers into the sensitive depths of her paw crevices, then grabbed her other paw to apply the same treatment.

Lira's shrieks turned into a continuous screech as her tail curled around Naran's shins. Her wings stretched to their limits, her back arched, and her toes flexed to their maximum width mere moments before a hard squirt took Naran straight into his groin.

He let go of Lira's paws and stumbled back, blinking hard and fast. The slick warmth seeped into his leggings. It pierced through the leather, enticing his cock to grow under the promise of warmth and moisture. And it smelled! A sweet, prickly fragrance that numbed down Naran's senses one by one, until all he felt were the rhythmical throbs of his rock hard cock.

"Why did you--that was a cheap shot," Naran stammered. His breaths grew heavy as he shuffled towards her head, one wobbling step at a time. Soft, steady chirps left her half opened beak. Her eyelids rolled down to shield her eyes, and all of her limbs and wings twitched with ecstatic shivers. Only her tail remained in place while her shuddering folds leaked a steady stream of translucent arousal--no, juices. They were thicker--so thick they formed ephemeral bridges between her trembling lips and the grass below.

Naran knelt by her rump, his fingers itching to delve into her slick tunnel and bring her total fulfillment.

"Lira, did you, by any chance, had your moment of great pleasure?"

She didn't answer. Her beak clacked as a hazy eye fixated on Naran.

She did.

He chuckled in spite of himself, grabbed both of the amulets in each hand and recalled the spells back into them. As soon as the roots retracted, Lira swung onto her back, kicking her paws at the air while trilling.

Naran looked around the clearing, at the sky, at his boots, anywhere but at her. If he did, she would share his glance and observe his erection. Better to wait for it to subside.

It didn't. His cock responded with a throb to each thump of his heart, and Lira no longer kicked her paws. She now rested on her side, her hind paws tucked under a wing and her bleary eyes fixated on him.

She raised her wing for him and nodded once.

Naran licked his lips, bowed his head and settled under her wing.

"I can finish you off. With my fingers. If you still have the craving for it," the words fled his numb lips against his will.

Lira's head poked through the feathery curtain. Her beak stood eye level with him, so close that her hot breath washed over Naran's ruddy cheeks. "Would you do it if I accepted your offer?"

"No, but I can promise not to tickle your paws that bad ever again," he said, and Lira squeaked in delight. She fixated her gaze onto the wet patch on his leggings, and brushed her beak against it.

Naran stiffened, if only because his cock lurched hard enough to draw Lira's attention.

"You're hard," she observed.

"I'm not. It's just your goo, splattered all over my leggings."

Lira snorted and poked her beak at his bulge. Naran winced and bit his lower lip as a shudder of elation rippled through him.

"Will you wait it out or do something about it?" Lira inquired.

Naran paled. "It's not--it's not really something I..."

"I can rub your serpent off with my hind paws if that feels better than your hand. They're soft enough to--"

"NO!" Naran thundered, almost ready to stumble back. "It's just...it will pass, just give it time."

Lira hooked the tip of her beak onto the seams of his leggings and tugged lightly. "At the very least, you should let it out before you release inside them like last time."

"That was your fault. You rubbed me. Against me, I mean. With your beak." Naran licked his lips and rolled his eyes in distress. "Why are you so curious about humans anyway? You should go pester a Stripedpaws until he mounts you. Gryphons share more similarities with them cats than with any other being."

"I may, if only to shut you up." Lira pulled at his leggings harder. "Right now, I'd like to see it when it's grown."

Naran's head whirled. He couldn't argue with a lustful buzzard. Whatever edge he had over her retreated along with the roots that bound her. His vision swam, his temples throbbed, and Lira's scent filled his nostrils. Her fragrance addled his mind, to the point where he clutched the rim of his leggings and pulled them down to his thighs. His rock hard member burst from its confines, along with a lustful groan. He looked to the sides to avoid Lira's gaze and gritted his teeth.

"There. You saw it. Satisfied?" he hissed.

She squawked and moved her head from one side to the other, chirping and squeaking and trilling. "Only the tip left the sheath. Why?"

Naran scoffed. She knew he was a virgin. She knew he never mated. Why ask?

"Can I touch it with a hind paw?" Lira asked excitedly. One of her hind paws trudged closer to him, until her toes rested on top of his right thigh.

"Don't press your luck."

"It's softer than your own hand, warmer than a human and slick enough--"

"Enough, Lira," Naran growled. "You've seen how an erect male human looks like. That's all you get from me."

Her head shifted so that one of her eyes filled his vision. "You pleasured me a few nights ago with your fingers. As your wing mate, I'd like to return the favor."

Naran cackled when she wriggled her toes. "With what, your foot? The one you walk on?"

She slid it against his leggings with quick, curt strokes. "Clean now."

"Your definition of clean differs from mine," Naran said. He squeezed his jaws tighter as his cock bobbed up and down with renewed vigor. Lira's scent--it had a certain allure to it, a potency that enflamed Naran's blood and brought him on the verge of release without even a mere stroke along his shaft.

"It's still a foot, Lira, no matter the way you put it."

"Your hands are feet when you walk on all fours as well."

Naran scoffed. "Gryphon logic."

Lira's beak returned to his cock. Naran knew it, for her hot breath fell right upon his sensitive tip, across his rock hard flesh. "I want to pleasure you in the ways I can, Naran. You either mate with me, or let me knead at your serpent with my hind paw."

There was a harshness in her voice, a touch of stubbornness that Naran had grown to love over the years he had spent with Lira. His gryphon never backed down when dared, nor would she now. Naran cupped his face in his palms, released a shuddering breath and pointed at the saddle bags. "Get me a water skin. Nothing happens until I wash your paw."

She gently lifted herself off the ground, dug her head into a saddlebag and returned with a water skin in her beak. Naran grabbed it. He waited for Lira to curl around him, grabbed her proffered hind paw, uncorked the water skin and poured a steady stream of water over it. Lira twitched it at first, but she got used to it the more Naran rinsed her pads with thorough strokes.

"Hold it off the ground," Naran said. He laid onto his back, head rested against one of Lira's forelegs as he surrendered his manhood to her whims.

"Give it here. Your so called 'hand'."

Lira's paw found his hand. She trilled while Naran rubbed it until blazing heat returned to her pads. Her toes flexed in anticipation, and her wing shivered at the edge of Naran's vision. Somehow, he knew she was as distressed as he was, just like he knew her offer to pleasure him had an important meaning to her. Gryphons had certain bonding rituals that ran deeper than any vow. Her desire to show Naran that she, too, could pleasure him, was one such ritual.

Or so Naran thought. It seemed beyond ridiculous at first, and yet, the more he inhaled her pheromones laden scent, the less he cared. No principles, no silly reasoning, would stand between him and Lira. He loved her too much; so much, that he slowly lowered her paw onto his groin despite the absurdity of such act.

Both him and Lira held their breaths. Naran lowered the paw, slowly, until warmth surrounded him from all sides. He groaned softly, throbbing once in the encasing warmth. Lira's toes pressed against his tip, urging his foreskin to roll further down and expose his sensitive head to her ministrations.

That was a bit too much, even for him. Naran gritted his teeth against the fire welling within his groin. Trapping his cock was one thing, and stimulating his bare flesh another. Naran groaned and gasped, trying to hold the surge of pleasure back. The pressure exerted by Lira's toes against his sensitive flesh already brought him far too close to the edge of delight. He couldn't spill like this. Not so quickly.

"Let go of my paw," Lira demanded. "Let me pleasure you."

Naran's grip relaxed, but he didn't let go. Not when Lira began rubbing her paw along his shaft with broad strokes while kneading at his tip with her flexing toes. Naran huffed with each throb that forced him closer to his climax. He squinted at the overpowering sensation rippling through his body and moaned when Lira's paw descended upon his tip to reveal more and more of his glans. Her paw felt so tight. So hard.

His hips bucked, thrusting his length through her pads and into the sensitive crevice surrounding them. Lira's paw jerked, but she kept kneading at Naran's tip while her central pad rubbed against the base of his shaft.

Naran sucked in a deep breath. His peak approached while his control over his body lessened. His hips lurched against his will, thrusting his cock into her paw with terse strokes. His cock squelched with lewd, wet noises, smearing Lira's pads with slippery pre.

Lira was not only soft, but warm too, and Naran's aroused senses perceived the silky shelter as something more than a mere paw. For a short moment, the clutch of her toes around him resembled the wet confines of Lira's tight sex. The pads he thrust against were her tense muscles, rippling with elation under his strokes. Lost in lust's thrill, Naran picked up his thrusts, venturing deeper and harder into her paw until the seething clutch around his member became unbearable.

"I'm-I'm about to..." He grabbed Lira's paw and squeezed it tight as he began thrusting into her pads with erratic strokes. Lira's squeak, her claws pressed against his hands, the pain of his throbbing wounds--they all faded before the wave of bliss flooding Naran's being.

He lodged his cock in with a last, powerful thrust and let go of the fiery torrent welling within him just when Lira's toes clenched around his tip. He drew his head back to cry out as his first spurt traversed his tight length and burst into Lira's shuddering paw. The gryphoness clacked her beak with lust as the pressure sent the seed bursting between her toes. She moved her head closer to sniff, tightening her paw around Naran every time he throbbed. Fresh ropes of sticky seed rammed against her warm paw, turning the insides into a wet, sticky mess. Naran unloaded everything he had, rubbing himself until the last drops left his spent cock.

Once his spurts subsided to dull throbs, Naran drew in a deep breath. He pushed the paw off his messy groin, winced at the lewd noise, and lifted his head to look at Lira's reaction.

She dabbed her beak at the slimy goo, wriggled her toes and jerked her paw as she tried to get rid of it. No amount of toe spreading or poking took the slimy strings off her. She needed a tongue, and a beast large enough to wield it.

Lira chirped her frustration and settled her beak onto his belly to face him.

"Your essence is far stickier than I expected."

"Let's not talk about it," Naran said. His mind suddenly felt clearer, lighter, like the clear blue sky after a storm. Did Lira's pheromones lead to his lapse in judgment? Or was it his fault? Naran pulled up his leggings, much to Lira's displeasure, then rubbed her chin and brow until her melodious chirps filled his ears.

"Can a gryphon's scent lead a human astray?" Naran asked.

Lira's ears flicked. "Only humans lead themselves astray by assuming it's wrong to follow their instincts. Your views are narrow, your concepts limited. These," she paused to fill Naran's left hand with her clean paw, "can do as much as your hands, but you call them feet and create all manner of assumptions about them."

"Maybe humans and gryphons are fundamentally different," Naran mused out loud.

Lira pushed her head further up his chest until the fluff of her cheek filled Naran's lips. "Or maybe that's one of your limited concepts that you forced yourself to accept. We are mates by right of bonding, no matter the species."

"I said what I had to say about mating, Lira," Naran said. "Just because you pleasured me with your paw and I pleasured you with my fingers doesn't mean my seed will magically grow eggs inside you."

She said no more after that. Naran basked in the warmth of her head rested against him, cupped her hind paw into his palm and stroked her pads with the tips of his fingers. As much as Lira loved him, her heat would return, stronger and more demanding with each year. Unlike humans, gryphons had to bear eggs. Their instincts urged them.

And when Naran's seed wouldn't quicken...

He bit his lower lip at that, frowned, and forced himself to sleep.