'Just go and see the spirits for guidance,' they said.

'It'll be fine,' they said.

It's not fine. It sucks, actually. Chopper stands wheezing at the top of the mountain after having spent a full hour or more climbing it's rockface, sometimes being graced with the opportunity to simply walk up a steep incline, but the majority of his ascent had been vertical rock formations that he was forced to climb up as a rite of passage. The cat/mouse hybrid couldn't take it anymore, but at least he was at the top...for the most part.

In front of him was one final hill, but he could see the destination in sight-- a good 20 or 30 metres away sat a pair of thick sticks somehow embedded in the rock, bearing the unique marks and masks of his tribal home; he was in the right place. He couldn't see what lay beyond, for it was over the lip of the rocky hill, but he had a feeling he knew what it'd look like. With a groaning sigh he padded his way up the hill, the 10-year-old's legs burning and aching for rest...but still, he did not falter, not until he reached the peak of that hill. There, the path lead down into a crevice, or rather a crater, in the mountain...and in the middle lay his ancestor's spiritual stone, a large boulder that was at least 3 times his height and carefully etched with runes, sigils and marks. Even from this distance, Chopper could feel the hum of its energy.

Swallowing his nerves, the blue-furred boy descended. His loincloth and ankles jingled and bounced with each step and he held his lithe hands apart to stop himself from loosing balance or footing as he went. Apart from his loincloth, he wore nothing else, and as he descended down to the rock below his fur prickled with anxiety and the surrounding energy, specifically around the various markings and painted tribal patterns on his body, from his arms to his legs and chest. It didn't take him long to get close to the rock, but even then he could go no further. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but it felt like something was blocking him from truly approaching. At most, he could only get within a couple of metres of it before he had to stop.

Before he could do anything, a rumbling noise came from within the bowls of the mountain, and above him the wind whipped and whistled, picking up into a near-deafening roar. The sky above, blue and lacking any clouds, darkened ever so slightly, and Chopper had to cover his big rounded ears a little as he tried to understand what was going on. He squinted his eyes as the wind picked up around him, buffeting his dark blue hair this way and that, and he focused his gaze on the ancestral rock, realising that the etchings on its surface were glowing and lighting up, as if to greet him. In turn, the markings on his body lit up as well, almost blinding him with how bright they were. Within that light he saw a figure, quadruped and magnificently tall, come out from the rock. He couldn't make out any of its features, for the glow of those markings was simply too strong.

The silhouette turned its head towards him and he felt a striking presence envelope his entire being, causing him to freeze on the spot. It strode towards him, padding across on four legs in a way that seemed to be stalking him, like a large cat looking for its prey...but it did not circle him, nor did it bend its body any further. Instead, it merely lingered and stared, standing not that far away, examining him for a moment. It eventually drew closer, and its presence and pressure became more overbearing. Chopper did his best to resist or stand firm, but his knees quaked and his breathing quickened. It was a lot to take in.

Suddenly, Chopper's legs gave out from under him and he toppled backwards, forced to uncover his ears to stop himself from hitting the ground hard. He couldn't find the strength to scrabble back from the creature and instead laid there, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror. Logically, he knew this to be some kind of ancestral spirit...but irrationally, the inner mouse in him was terrified and wanted to run. For a moment the creature simply stood there, before it padded the distance towards him, approaching at a leisurely pace. When it reached his body, he could feel the warmth of its body heat emenating and wafting over him and, to his surprise, the creature didn't stop there. He strode over him completely, planting its front paws either side of him. For a brief moment, he felt what he thought was fur, sharp like knives, before it shifted that part of its body away from him. It continued to step forwards until its back paws were either side of him instead, and though Chopper couldn't be sure what the creature was planning, it was vividly aware of the proximity of where his head was. As it turned out, that's what the spirit wanted.

Chopper felt a sudden wet mass meet his cheek, sliding towards his lips, and his nostrils flared at the scent of arousal, picking it up easily. Unsure what to do, all Chopper could think was to open his mouth, and he heard a growl above him as something enetered his mouth. Sure, the spirit was, for the most part, blocking out some of the blinding light, but its silhouette was still dark and murky, and he was yet unable to make out any defining features...he couldn't even tell what kind of appendage was in his mouth, but the way it jutted back and forth, barely an inch or more, indicated the obvious, even to a naive boy like him. A sudden rush of fluid hit the back of his throat and he coughed, trying to swallow it down. When he reached up a hand to grasp onto whatever was in his mouth, something blocked him from doing so, and he was forced to use his tongue and lips only.

That mass moved back and forth slowly and sensually, and Chopper's body tingled with a mixture of arousal and confusion, enough to make his loins stir. His tiny, humanoid cock tented his loincloth as the spirit picked up the pace, pushing and thrusting against his mouth, and Chopper had to gulp portion after portion of strange fluid that, honestly, tasted of nothing. The appendage never moved deeper than an inch, and Chopper had a feeling there was a lot more to it than what he was taking.

Suddenly, that fluid became something more-- it drowned his mouth in a salty mixture that he couldn't take, and it trickled from his cheeks, before lapsing into readily oozing dollops, followed by a heavy stream. It splattered across his once clean front as the spirit pulled back and a warmth spread across Chopper's front, as if he'd just took a bath...but when he placed his hand to his chest, it was sticky and gross. That hot liquid splashed across his face and then down his legs, before the mass wedged against his inner thigh, deliberately coaxing his crotch area in the fluid. In a matter of moments it was over, and as Chopper raised his head he was blinded once more. In the blink of an eye, the spirit was gone...but he was sure he felt some kind of lick against his forehead as it left. He pressed his hand to his forehead and felt a strange tingling in the shape of a circle.

He barely had a moment to breathe before the rock glowed once more and another spirit stepped forth, this of a more bipedal shape with tall, imposing horns and wings. Unbeknownst to Chopper, his first trial was done, and the next was about to begin; that of endurance.