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powerful psychic in the Whispering Woods. However, their journey there proves a formidable challenge for the apprentice Garnet Paws.\n\nIn chapter eight of \"The Garnet Paws\", the plot starts to thicken as Ryan not only faces his longest mission so far but a group of bandits as well. Aside from new places and the first actual fighting action, the chapter features more lewd fun with hot, messy sex, musk, big bits, excessive amounts of cum, cum inflation, and size difference as the eevee gets to top his teammate Chester for the first time. I wish you a fun read, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this story! \n\nA big thanks goes to [url=https://inkbunny.net/RoyalSerperior]Royal Serperior[/url] for providing helpful feedback on this story.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Previous Chapter

In search of answers about Ryan's origins, the eevee and Team Wildwoods are sent out to visit a powerful psychic in the Whispering Woods. However, their journey there proves a formidable challenge for the apprentice Garnet Paws.

In chapter eight of "The Garnet Paws", the plot starts to thicken as Ryan not only faces his longest mission so far but a group of bandits as well. Aside from new places and the first actual fighting action, the chapter features more lewd fun with hot, messy sex, musk, big bits, excessive amounts of cum, cum inflation, and size difference as the eevee gets to top his teammate Chester for the first time. I wish you a fun read, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this story!

A big thanks goes to Royal Serperior for providing helpful feedback on this story.", "writing": "\"Alright, your turn now,\" Max chirped, winking at Ryan when a pokemon stepped onto the steel grate above the earth-walled pit they were in. Or rather, landed on it with a metallic thunk.\n\n\"Wait, what do you mean?\" The eevee shot the grinning mienfoo a stunned look.\n\n\"It means it's your turn to identify the pokemon above. Just take another look at this if you can't figure it out,\" Max responded, pointing at the large flowchart of feet, paws, talons, and other features on the wall beside him. \"And I know you can do it.\" Then he tilted back his head and addressed the visitor, \"Hold! Who is approaching the gate? Identify yourself!\"\n\n\"Name's Reyka. I'm bringing the mail,\" a raspy voice responded.\n\n\"The mail? From which post office do you hail?\" the mienfoo followed up.\n\n\"The office in the east of Minty Meadows. I'm new,\" the visitor replied. \"I'm a pidgeot.\"\n\nWhile they spoke, Ryan stared at the shadow on top of the grate with narrowed eyes, trying to decipher who and what exactly he was looking at. He glanced at the flowchart, searching for the talons that matched the courier's claim, only to get lost on the wrong half of the diagram for far too long before he finally located the section about bird pokemon talons.\n\n\"What's your verdict?\" Max asked.\n\nTaking one more glimpse at the flowchart, Ryan nodded with cautious certainty. \"I- I think it's a pidgeot?\"\n\n\"What's the holdup down there?\" Reyka demanded to know, the impatience in her voice not helping the eevee's confidence at all.\n\n\"Nothing! I'm just instructing an apprentice right now, that's all. I'll let you in in just a moment,\" the mienfoo yelled before he cocked his head at Ryan. \"How can you tell?\"\n\n\"Uhhhhh… she has talons?\" Ryan muttered, squinting up at the courier once again. \"And beige downs. Amber tail feathers. Right?\"\n\n\"Correct. She's carrying a bag and is about the right size for a pidgeot too, but most importantly, her talons have three front toes, one hallux, pink skin, and silver claws. Plus, they have a very characteristic girth, which makes them surprisingly soft and squishy,\" Max assessed, a sudden dreaminess in his eyes as he peered at the visitor's feet. Not to mention the twitch of his half-chub. \"Anyway, her story checks out, but I have to make a note for future reference.\" He flipped two levers on a console on the packed dirt wall. One rang a bell in the guardhouse, and the other triggered the opening mechanism for the guild's massive front gate.\n\n\"Thank you,\" the voice called from above.\n\n\"You're welcome,\" Max yelled back. Then he stepped past Ryan, selecting a rubber stamp with a pidgeot's talon from a whole wall of stamps with no second's hesitation. He pushed it onto a green ink pad, then onto the ledger that listed every arrival and departure before he signed it with the courier's name, intent, and arrival time. \"I do have to contact the post office in Minty Meadows to confirm that she's from there, but I can do that later.\"\n\nRyan watched the mienfoo with an open muzzle. Even after watching him identify dozens of pokemon over the last hour, he was still amazed by the other male's ability to recognize all of them by the shape of their feet. Not to mention how effortlessly he navigated the several hundred different rubber stamps. \"What happens if you get it wrong?\"\n\nWith a proud smile, Max reached for one of the older ledgers on the shelves beside them, brushed off the dust, and opened it. \"Mistakes happen, but as long as you correct them, it's usually fine,\" he replied, pointing a finger at a crossed-out line with a correction in red beside it.\n\nThe fact that Ryan didn't see a red pen or ink pad anywhere told him all he needed to know. \"Wow. When did that happen?\"\n\n\"About a year ago, I think?\" The mienfoo glimpsed at the ledger's cover. \"Yeah, about a year, give or take.\"\n\n\"That's about as long as I needed to find you, Ryan,\" a gruff, but familiar voice chimed in from behind. Jig had emerged from the narrow, steel-shod wood door that connected Max's earthy domain with the rest of Garnet Paws Guild, and the guild leader's bodyguard looked ever-so-slightly grumpier than usual as he advanced toward the eevee. \"Looked everywhere but in our foot guy's foot lair.\"\n\n\"I'm glad to see you too, Jig,\" Max chortled.\n\nRyan tilted his head in curiosity. \"Hey, Jig. You were looking for me?\"\n\n\"Yeah. Come. Luna wants to talk to you,\" the poochyena grunted before he turned around and left without further comment.\n\n\"Oh, uhh, okay! I'm coming!\" Ryan responded, shaking with sudden excitement. He wasn't sure what the absol wanted to tell him, but it could only mean that there was news about his situation! He hurriedly nodded at the mienfoo before he dashed after Jig. \"Sorry, Max, gotta go!\"\n\n\"No worries. I wouldn't leave Luna waiting either,\" Max chuckled, giving the eevee a quick wave before he looked up as the next pokemon approached the gates.\n\nRyan chased the poochyena down a dusky corridor, up a spiral staircase, across the guild's courtyard, through the quest room, and up another two floors, ending up slightly winded by the time they reached the guild leader's office. Inside, Luna, Apollo, and the rest of Team Wildwoods awaited him with the large, gravid absol guild leader splayed on her wide, luxurious lounger and the others seated on silky red seat cushions in front of her.\n\n\"Hey!\" the eevee gasped, his heart pounding not only from the mad dash but also with excitement. He stumbled toward the group and plopped down on the last empty seat between Lily and Lumi. \"You wanted to talk to me?\"\n\nLuna greeted the eevee with a warm, melodic chuckle and a wave of her paw. \"Welcome, Ryan. I'm glad that Jig managed to locate you because we have important news for you.\"\n\nRyan's heart thumped even faster. \"Important news? Did you find out why I'm here?\"\n\n\"No. Unfortunately, we haven't found out anything specific yet, but we have an idea who might know more,\" the absol responded, curbing the eevee's enthusiasm before she looked at the gardevoir. \"Apollo, would you be so kind and present your findings?\"\n\n\"With the greatest pleasure, Luna,\" the gardevoir spoke, his voice soft and warm like a comfy blanket. \"I do not know whether any of you have noticed it, but there is a special flavor to your aura, Ryan. It's incredibly faint, an ephemeral overtone that I initially dismissed as a figment of my imagination, but I've sensed it every time I've met you since, and another guild member has told me something similar. I cannot tell where it's coming from, but it feels like someone powerful has left a mark on you that they tried their best to hide.\"\n\n\"Someone powerful?\" Ryan asked with a shiver. \"Do you think it's the pokemon that brought me here?\"\n\n\"Perhaps, but I cannot say for sure. I am not experienced enough to decipher the originator or their intention from the mark alone, but I do know someone who should have a better chance at it,\" Apollo said. \"Her name is Nim. She is the protector of the Whispering Woods. I contacted her, and she is willing to take a look at you.\"\n\n\"Oh? That's great!\" Ryan trembled even harder as the revelation sent a tingling wave of hot and cold through him. \"When… when can I meet her?\"\n\n\"That is the crux of the matter,\" Luna chimed in, her anklets tinkling as she gestured with her paw. \"Nim never leaves her realm and subjects, so you would have to travel to the Whispering Woods to meet her. Unfortunately, the journey won't be nearly as easy as any of your previous missions, but your teammates have assured me that the progress you've made over the last two weeks will be sufficient for this endeavor.\" She looked at Lily, Lumi, and Chester, waiting for each to nod before she moved on. \"However, it is ultimately up to you to decide whether you're ready or not.\"\n\n\"How difficult will it be?\" the eevee asked, kneading his seat cushion with both forepaws as he was torn between excitement and slight concern.\n\n\"First of all, it takes three or four days to get there, so the whole trip would take at least a week,\" the absol stated.\n\nRyan nodded, trying not to think too much about how sore his feet would get. Hopefully, Lumi had enough of his magical salve on paw.\n\n\"Secondly, a substantial part of the journey lies outside of our guild's territory, so you have to watch out for bandits and highwaymen,\" Luna added. \"Chester spoke highly of your intensive training sessions and your evasive skills, but no training can capture the threat and tension of real combat. Do you feel ready to face groups of hostile pokemon?\"\n\nThis time Ryan didn't nod immediately. Instead, he turned to the Galarian ponyta with a worried frown.\n\nChester put on a reassuring grin and asserted without missing a beat, \"I've seen what you're capable of, Ryan, and I believe that you can do it. Also, we have your back, no matter what, and it's far from our first escort mission into dangerous territory.\"\n\nLumi corroborated the ponyta's words with encouraging nods, and Lily added, \"I would carry you there on my back if I had to.\"\n\nRyan still felt a little uneasy at the prospect of dealing with actual enemies, but knowing that he would head there with a team of experienced explorers allayed most of his worries. Finally, he announced, \"Okay, I'm ready. I will do it!\"\n\n\"Are you absolutely sure?\" the guild leader asked, a cautious smile on her muzzle.\n\n\"Yes! The sooner we figure this out, the better,\" Ryan asserted and jumped up, his tail wagging wildly as his excitement returned full force.\n\n\"Very well then. Apollo, please inform Nim that Team Wildwoods is on the way,\" Luna chuckled. \"Don't let me keep you any longer, but promise me you'll stay safe and watch yourselves out there, okay?\"\n\n\"Yes, we will! And thank you so much, Luna. Thank you so much, Apollo, for helping me out with this. I wouldn't even know where to start without you,\" Ryan said.\n\n\"You're more than welcome, Ryan. Besides, we're just as eager to solve this riddle as you are,\" the absol laughed, dismissing Team Wildwoods with a wave of her paw. \"See you soon.\"\n\n\"See you, Luna!\" Ryan chirped, waving back at the guild leader before he whirled around and dashed out of her office as fast as his paws would carry him.\n\nThe eevee was so excited he would've liked to run downstairs and leave the guild without further ado, but he begrudgingly curbed his own enthusiasm and went up to his team's bedroom to help with the necessary preparations. Fortunately, Lumi always made sure that everything was well-organized and in its proper place, so it only took them a few minutes to pack two saddlebags with bread, dried berries, the Alolan vulpix's precious salve, and a few more potions, put them on Chester's back, and don their red guild scarves. They each grabbed a waterskin as well, and not even half an hour later, they were on their way.\n\nRyan had a peppy spring in his step as he followed Chester through the guild's front gate. With Lily and Lumi at his side, he looked at them and asked, \"So, what are the Whispering Woods like?\"\n\n\"That's a good question,\" the zorua replied. \"I haven't been there for a while since it's outside the Garnet Paws's purview.\"\n\n\"Yes, we don't get there often, but it's a lovely place with very welcoming inhabitants. A dense needleleaf forest with a canopy so thick that you rarely see the sun, but it's a tranquil, cozy twilight,\" the Alolan vulpix added. \"Like a big bed with the trees as the blanket and the soft forest floor as the mattress.\"\n\n\"That sounds nice,\" the eevee said. \"Will it really take us four days to get there?\"\n\n\"Yes, roundabout that long if you're not in a hurry,\" Lumi responded. \"First we'll follow Emerald Creek to the source, which is at the edge of the guild's reach, and it'll be north across the hill ranges from there until we get to the Whispering Woods.\"\n\nRyan nodded, his tail beginning to ache as it still wagged furiously with no signs of slowing down. This was his first proper mission! Sure, carrying stuff and finding things in the woods and meadows around Garnet Paws Guild had been good training and even tricky sometimes, but so far, no mission had lasted longer than a morning or afternoon while this outing would last several days! An actual adventure! \"By the way, where are we gonna stay for the night? Are there any towns or villages on the way?\"\n\nLumi burst into giggles and Lily shook her head, remarking, \"Nope. That's another reason why we rarely head to the Whispering Woods. It's pretty much all wilderness once we pass the source of Emerald Creek, but there are a few wilderness cabins dotted around the hillside. As for their condition…\"\n\n\"They usually have intact roofs, so at least it won't rain on our heads during the night, but the ground can be a bit rough sometimes,\" Lumi chimed in. \"That's why we packed extra blankets.\"\n\n\"Oh.\" The eevee wasn't sure what else to say. He shouldn't be too surprised that a multi-day mission required some outdoor camping.\n\n\"It also means that we'll get to cuddle in front of a crackling campfire, so that's that,\" Lily cooed, playfully flicking her tail against Ryan's side. \"You'll love it.\"\n\nThe zorua's promise dispelled most of the eevee's worries, and he even found himself looking forward to spending the night in the wilderness, but that was a concern for later because it wasn't even noon yet and they still had the whole way to go. Chester led them at a brisk pace to take full advantage of the fact that they were all fresh and rested. Following a beaten dirt road up the meandering bends and turns of Emerald Creek, the plan was to reach the source by the end of the day, which lay about fifteen miles ahead.\n\nFor the first hour, Ryan was still talking with Lily and Lumi about what staying a night out in the wilderness was like. But as the path forward became ever narrower and bumpier, leading up an increasingly steep hill, he eventually stopped talking as he had to fully focus on the ground in front of his paws. Step by step, minutes passed and soon turned into hours, and then even more hours until the sun passed its zenith.\n\nBy that point, Ryan trailed Chester's lead by almost two dozen feet. The training missions had definitely paid off because his paws weren't nearly as raw and aching as after his first trip across Whitewater Grove, but he still hadn't developed nearly the same, seemingly limitless stamina as the rest of his team. While the psychic ponyta and zorua were chatting as if they were on a casual stroll, he was panting and heaving, his body hot and his limbs heavy from dragging himself up a hill for several hours. Not to mention his painfully empty, loudly growling stomach.\n\nLuckily, Lumi was walking right next to the eevee, because he wasn't sure if he would've managed to catch up to the others on his own. The snowy vulpix perked his fluffy little ears at the rumbling, and with a grin, he asked, \"Getting hungry?\"\n\n\"Y-yeah, and a short break wouldn't hurt either,\" Ryan wheezed.\n\n\"Hey, Lily, Chester,\" Lumi yelled ahead. \"How about a lunch break?\"\n\n\"No, not yet,\" the Galarian ponyta yelled back. \"There's a good resting spot coming up in about half a mile. We'll stop there.\"\n\n\"Okay!\" the Alolan vulpix responded, waggling his head at the exhausted eevee beside him. \"You can do another half mile, right?\"\n\n\"Yeah, I'll manage,\" Ryan grunted. \"Just why does it have to go uphill the entire time?\"\n\nLumi glanced at Emerald Creek as it thundered down the narrow crevice it had cut into the rock beside them. \"Because that's unfortunately how rivers work,\" he giggled, swishing his six tails around Ryan's backside to give him an extra push. \"Don't worry. We've made good progress so far, and once we're at the source, we won't be heading up much further. Just a few more miles.\"\n\nRyan gave the Alolan vulpix a tired sigh. \"Can you give me one of your energy potions?\"\n\nLumi shook his head with an apologetic smile. \"I only have two and they're for emergency use only. For example, when you're so exhausted that you can no longer stand on your feet, and that's not the case at the moment, I hope?\"\n\n\"N-no, I can still walk, but I'm not sure for how much longer,\" the eevee mumbled, staring down at the glistening, sweat-soaked fur of his forelegs. At least they weren't shaking too much yet.\n\nThe next few minutes until Team Wildwoods reached the promised resting spot were among the longest in Ryan's life… at least in the last two weeks he could remember. Chester's decision proved to be the right call, though, as they ended up at a small, placid lake between the trees and boulders. Its shallow gravel beach was perfect for unfurling a blanket and settling down by the water, and once the eevee dropped onto the fabric, he deflated with a tired but blissful sigh. It wasn't the most comfortable in the world, but a thousand times better than walking, and while Lumi and Chester went foraging for berries, he enjoyed the view across the flat, glittering water surface with Lily lying right beside him.\n\n\"How are you doing, Ryan?\" the zorua asked softly.\n\n\"I'm beat. And hungry. But otherwise fine,\" Ryan chuckled weakly. \"I didn't expect it to be this exhausting, and we've still got a few more days to go!\" Despite all the encouragement, he was starting to doubt that he was ready for this trip.\n\n\"Yes, the first part is the toughest, especially if you're not used to it, but it's going to get easier soon.\"\n\n\"Heh. Lumi said the exact same thing,\" the eevee muttered, reaching over the edge of the blanket to fidget with a few pebbles. \"What happens if I can't do it?\"\n\n\"You will. Once we're over this hill, it'll never get this steep again, and we're in no rush. We can take a few more breaks this afternoon for you,\" Lily said, placing one paw on Ryan's back. \"And if all else fails, I'll carry you.\"\n\n\"You'll carry me? You didn't mean that as a joke?\"\n\n\"Nope, I was serious about that. Maybe Lumi would have to carry you for a bit too, but we'll get you to the Whispering Woods one way or another,\" she giggled, giving him a nuzzle.\n\n\"Ugh, don't nuzzle me. I'm all icky and sweaty,\" Ryan groaned. That was the only downside of lying down: he was stewing in his own cooling sweat.\n\n\"I don't mind, but why don't you take a quick dip while we wait for the others to return?\"\n\nThe eevee looked at the calm, shallow water in front of him and hesitated to get up even though it was less than two feet away. Ultimately, the need to clean himself won out and he dragged himself into the lake. \"Brrrr, this is cold,\" he gasped, much to Lily's giggly delight. Then he looked down. The water was crystal clear. He could see every rock and stone beneath the surface, and after walking so much, he was overcome with the strong urge to take a sip. Fortunately, the zorua was the only pokemon around to witness as he leaned forward, hovered his muzzle an inch above the water, and tried to drink.\n\nRyan's first few licks were as aimless and futile as his occasional, embarrassing attempts back at the guild, but at least this wasn't as messy as trying to eat soup or stew. Ironically, the splashing water even cleaned his face and muzzle as he tried to drink, and although Lily couldn't stifle her giggles at his clumsy performance, he kept going. After all, he knew that he had the right instincts. He just needed to understand them like when he had learned to walk.\n\nFifteen minutes of full concentration, that's how long it took the eevee to disentangle all the different movements his tongue was capable of, but when it finally clicked, it was almost as satisfying as his first deliberate steps. Finally, he managed to flick the clear, cool liquid into his open muzzle without splashing it all over his cheeks. No longer did he have to shove half of his face into the water to drink, and what seemed impossible just a minute ago became effortless, so he drank and drank and drank, even after he was no longer thirsty.\n\n\"Oh hey, you did it?!\" Lily gasped when she noticed Ryan's accomplishment, and she jumped up, joining him in the water to get a better look. Then she leaned even closer, the big grin on her muzzle growing mischievous before she suddenly smacked a paw onto the water next to his head, splashing him from ear to cheek.\n\n\"Oi! What was that for?\"\n\n\"Sorry, but you were so focused that I just couldn't help myself,\" the zorua laughed.\n\n\"Is that so?\" Ryan retorted. A smirk formed on his lips as he wiped the water off his face and turned around. Before she realized what he was up to, he slapped his tail against the water and sprayed her with a whole gush of water. \"There! That's for splashing me.\"\n\nIt took exactly one second before the stunned zorua retaliated, sending an even even bigger splash of water the eevee's way. It was still as cold as ever, but he barely noticed it as he paid her back with another burst and a mad giggle.\n\nLily and Ryan spent the next few minutes chasing each other across the shallow shore until Lumi and Chester returned from their foraging trip.\n\n\"I see you've been enjoying yourselves while we were busy foraging,\" the Galarian ponyta chuckled as he dumped a huge heap of fruit, nuts, and berries from his saddlebags.\n\nLumi sat down beside Chester, grabbed the closest berry, and bit into it while he watched the eevee and the zorua bouncing around in the water. \"And it looks like someone found some more energy to spend after all.\"\n\nWhen Ryan spotted the pile of food, his stomach acted up with a particularly painful growl. Hungrier than ever, he stepped out of the lake and quickly shook himself, flinging droplets of water everywhere. Then he stumbled toward the males and the delicious treats they had deposited on the blanket. Not even bothering to use his paws, he shoved his muzzle into the pile and chowed down three berries at once before he sighed with his mouth full, \"Ah, perfect. Thanks a lot, guys.\"\n\n\"Also, Ryan finally figured out how to drink water properly,\" Lily remarked as she followed the eevee.\n\n\"What? Really? And I wasn't there to see it?\" Lumi gasped.\n\nPoking the snowy vulpix's side, the zorua purred with pursed lips. \"That makes us even~\"\n\nWith that, the two pokemon started arguing over which of Ryan's accomplishments was more important, but the eevee barely listened to any of it as he continued to gorge himself, replacing the water on his face with a sticky, colorful mess of various berry juices. The sugary sweetness was just what his empty stomach and tired brain needed right now, and he kept stuffing himself until he was full to the brim, his belly bulging from the sheer amount of food inside. However, the energy boost from the sugar stood no chance against the inevitable food coma, and when he lay back to take a brief nap, he dropped off within seconds.\n\n\nWhen Ryan eventually woke up again, the sun had moved a good chunk further across the sky.\n\n\"Wakey-wakey, sleepy head,\" Lumi greeted him with a giggle. \n\nTo Ryan's other side, Lily added, \"You know that chesto berries are meant to keep you awake, not knock you out, right?\"\n\n\"Huh? What?\" The eevee groaned, sleepily blinking at the two pokemon while he tried to recall where he was. Lake. Trees. Blanket. Right, the mission…\n\n\"Do you think you're ready to move on?\" Chester asked, the gravel scrunching under his hooves as he got up.\n\n\"Yes. Yes, I think so.\" Ryan sluggishly followed the other male's example, only to misjudge his balance and tumble back onto the blanket. \"Ack! Okay, maybe I need another minute.\"\n\n\"That's perfectly fine,\" the psychic ponyta nickered. \"Take your time. We'll pack up everything in the meantime.\" He casually pulled the blanket out from under the eevee, folded it up, and stowed it on his back.\n\nOnce Ryan was lying in the gravel, he finally got the kick he needed to get up. \"Alright. Alright. I'm getting up already,\" he grumbled, but his mood soon brightened as the refreshing dip, big lunch, and restful nap proved to be exactly what he needed to recover his energy. Although the excitement he had felt this morning didn't fully return, he managed to keep up with the others again as they continued their journey along the now incredibly narrow, rocky trail that ran between Emerald Creek on the left and a steep, towering cliff on the right. Instead, it was Lily's turn to lag a good chunk behind them.\n\nThe eevee's mood dimmed again, however, when he noticed a growing tension in Chester's gait. He leaned toward the larger male and whispered, \"Is everything alright?\"\n\n\"Everything's fine so far, yes. I'm just a little wary because this is a pretty narrow path and the cliff next to us is perfect for ambushes. Especially after blind turns like the one ahead,\" the Galarian ponyta remarked, pointing a hoof at the upcoming bend. \"Someone could just drop a boulder off the cliff up there and we'd be in trouble.\"\n\nWhile Chester pointed ahead, the boulder atop the cliff suddenly started moving with a rumble, and a moment later, the ground quaked beneath Ryan's feet as it crashed onto the road in front of them with a deafening thud.\n\n\"Shit! Of course, I had to say something… Everybody turn around and run! Now!\" the Galarian ponyta yelled.\n\nChester's command was crystal clear, but the eevee struggled to follow as his mind blanked and he tripped over his own feet, falling flat onto his stomach. He wasn't quite sure what was happening, but it sounded bad.\n\n\"Too late. They're behind us! Three pokemon. Zigzagoon. Liepard. Lopunny,\" Lumi snarled. A gust of freezing air washed around Ryan's paws as the snowy vulpix beside him got ready to fight.\n\nMeanwhile, Lily dashed right past the group of ambushers, sidestepping their crude attempts to catch her.\n\n\"Don't bother. One less only makes it easier for us,\" a loud voice cackled. An umbreon with a notched ear and scruffy black fur jumped onto the boulder in front of Team Wildwoods and sat on it like on a throne, her tail swishing lazily as she spoke with unmistakable disdain. \"Look what's strayed into our territory. A Garnet Paws exploration team.\"\n\n\"What do you want?\" Chester snorted, his whole body tense as a bowstring and his horned head lowered as he glared at the female.\n\nThe umbreon flicked her notched ear and rolled her eyes. \"Isn't that obvious? You're using a toll road and we're here to collect the toll,\" she asserted with a smug grin. Then her glowing red eyes fell onto Ryan, piercing him with a glare that froze the blood in his veins.\n\nChester sighed. \"How much do you want?\"\n\nThe umbreon didn't reply at first. Still staring at the eevee, her eyes narrowed and her expression suddenly shifted into something else. Something ugly.\n\n\"How much?\" Chester asked again, impatiently tapping the ground with one steel-shod hoof.\n\n\"One eevee,\" the umbreon responded with the same tone as if she were asking for a pawful of coins or berries. \"That eevee there, to be precise~\"\n\nChester and Lumi gasped in unison, but not a single sound escaped Ryan's open muzzle, his heart thudding in his ears as he tried, but failed to process her demand.\n\n\"No.\" The ponyta's voice dripped with a resoluteness that the eevee had never heard from him. \"Step aside or I will personally kick you into the creek.\"\n\n\"Ah, no, that unfortunately won't do. What a shame.\" The dark type clicked her tongue and sighed with feigned disappointment. Then her features hardened and a grimace of darkness burst from her face, careening toward Team Wildwoods to veil them in a thick black mist while she shrieked, \"Get that eevee, boys! He mustn't slip away.\"\n\nRyan's heart plummeted as the three bandits behind them dashed forward with fierce, blood-curdling cries. The liepard targeted Chester and the zigzagoon targeted Lumi, while the lopunny spread his arms to scoop up the shell-shocked eevee.\n\n\"Only over my dead body,\" Lumi roared. Another gust of icy wind swirled around the Alolan vulpix and with resounding cracks, he conjured up massive ice spikes from the ground around them, their sharp, jagged business ends pointed right at their ambushers to stop them.\n\nBlinded by his boss's own haze, the zigzagoon howled as he ran right into the vulpix's palisades. But while he retreated with his tail tucked between his hindlegs, the lopunny crossed his arms in front of his chest and barreled through the spikes with a defiant grunt.\n\n\"Ryan, duck!\"\n\nChester's command snapped the eevee out of his stupor and his fight-or-flight response kicked in full force. A surge of pure adrenaline rushed through his body, and just as the lopunny extended his arms to catch him, he jumped aside, just as he had practiced many times with the ponyta.\n\nUnfortunately, the ambusher turned around much faster than Ryan was used to from Chester. Although he failed to grab him, he managed to swing his arm against the eevee, batting him forward like a ball.\n\nRyan squealed as he was launched into the air, only for his breath to be knocked out of him when Lumi's ice palisades broke his flight. Luckily he didn't tumble into their spiky ends, but the impact still reduced him to a shaking, incapacitated heap just long enough for the lopunny to snatch him.\n\n\"Keep your filthy paws away from him!\"\n\nThe bandit cried out and dropped the eevee again as Lumi pelted him with a flurry of icicles. Dozens upon dozens of the glistening, icy daggers slammed into his side and knocked him off his balance. Stumbling away from the eevee, the lopunny ended up right behind Chester's rear, and although the Galarian ponyta was busy fending off the liepard's vicious claws and bites to his head, he reflexively kicked out with a fierce snort.\n\nRyan knew what damage Chester's kick could do, and he grimaced when the stallion's steel-shod hooves impacted the lopunny's waist with a nasty thud, launching him into the air like a rotten piece of driftwood. A second later, a second thud succeeded the first as the male's body slammed against the rocky cliff face, and there was no more movement after he crashed onto the ground, knocked out cold from the kick.\n\nMeanwhile, the Alolan vulpix sent the liepard into retreat with even more icicles, but the success was short-lived as Chester snarled, \"Two more ahead. Ekans and a fucking salandit.\"\n\n\"Dammit,\" Lumi cried as the salandit jumped in front of his ice barrier and melted it with a fur-singing blast of fire, allowing the ekans and the zigzagoon to pincer them from both sides.\n\n\"Ryan, jump. Now!\" Chester neighed.\n\nCompletely overwhelmed by the chaos around him, the eevee could only tell why he was jumping after he jumped, narrowly avoiding the ekans's desperate lunge to ensnare him. The serpent still managed to whip him with the end of his tail, but the smack of pain only got Ryan's blood pumping harder.\n\nAt the same time, the liepard returned and the group's boss herself joined the fray, accompanying the zigzagoon in his attempt to subdue the psychic ponyta with a relentless flurry of claws, bites, and bursts of pure darkness. On the other side, Lumi was busy fending off the salandit, struggling to stand his ground against the fire type.\n\nConsequently, Ryan had to deal with the ekans on his own, and he had to employ all his training to dodge the serpent's attacks. His opponent's moves were blisteringly fast and nearly unpredictable, but the eevee's reflexes proved just a smidgen faster, and whenever his attacker went left, he went right. When the ekans went right, he went left. When the ekans lunged forward, he jumped aside… only for a heavy rumbling to disrupt his desperate dance.\n\nA small landslide of dirt and rocks had broken loose from the cliffside, blindsiding the liepard and sweeping him right into the creek while narrowly missing the rest. It was no natural phenomenon, however, as a booming voice roared, \"Step away from the Garnet Paws, scoundrels!\" A towering mudsdale with a fluttering red scarf appeared on top of the cliff, stomping his hoof onto the ground to trigger another small landslide. \"Unless you want me to bury you all under this cliff.\"\n\n\"What the fuck? How did that fucking zorua manage to get backup this fast?\" the umbreon howled, only to be caught and shunted aside by the edge of Chester's hoof.\n\n\"Ryan! Lumi! Run! Now!\" the Galarian ponyta yelled.\n\n\"No! Don't let him get away! Two thousand pieces of gold for whoever catches him!\" the umbreon shrieked, struggling to drag herself up onto her paws. \"Pip! Sven! Mirry! Do something, you idiots!\"\n\nMeanwhile, Ryan followed Chester's call in a heartbeat and jumped over the confused ekans to make a run for it. The path ahead was still blocked by the boulder, but with no more bandits on it, he could just vault over it and leave the scene without ever looking behind. Running on pure adrenaline, he kept going and going, on and on, forward and ever forward as fast as his paws would carry him with a single goal in mind: away. Away from the fight. Away from the bandits. Away from his wannabe kidnappers.\n\nThe eevee's mad dash lasted for about five minutes before his energy ran out, leaving him with a pounding heart and heaving so much that he tasted blood in his breath. His sprint turned into a jog, then a walk before he finally stopped, his legs shaking like jelly and his head spinning so much he almost passed out. It also marked the first time he looked around, and to his great relief, he saw that Chester, Lumi, and their surprise savior, the mudsdale, were right behind him.\n\n\"Fuck, there were more of them than I thought,\" the Galarian ponyta groaned, his face a pained grimace. \"I've never seen that umbreon before. Must be a new gang.\"\n\n\"Luckily, they weren't too coordinated,\" the mudsdale snorted. \"And most of them thick as bricks.\"\n\n\"Yes. They could've really done a number on us if that salandit had attacked us sooner,\" Lumi admitted. \"Though, he wasn't that strong. All in, no reserves. Another two seconds and I would've completely broken that poor guy.\"\n\nStill reeling and gasping for breath, Ryan stared at the others, especially at their savior. He had seen one mudsdale around the guild before, but it wasn't her. After all, he was male. \"Thank you for helping us,\" he stumbled out once his body allowed. \"That was great timing. Did Lily find you? Also, where is she even? Shouldn't she be with you?\"\n\nLumi almost dropped the potion when he suddenly burst into giggles and a big grin appeared on the mudsdale's muzzle. \"What do you mean? She's right here.\"\n\n\"What? No, she is…\" Ryan's voice faltered when, from one moment to the next, the mudsdale disappeared and a beaming zorua sat in his place. He blinked. He blinked again, and a few more times for good measure in case his eyes were playing tricks on him. \"Lily?\"\n\n\"Surprise!\" the zorua chirped.\n\nNow even Chester started nickering as the eevee stood there with his muzzle wide open and eyes as big as plates, so perplexed that he forgot to breathe.\n\n\"I wasn't sure if any of them would see through the illusion, but they were too busy fighting to notice,\" Lily giggled. \"That umbreon was actually sooo close to getting it, but she was the only one of them.\"\n\n\"Yes, your distraction worked perfectly,\" the Galarian ponyta said. \"And Ryan?\"\n\n\"Yes?\"\n\n\"Good job on the dodging. That ekans was quick, but you were quicker. Well done,\" Chester praised him. Then his expression darkened. \"That said, we should keep moving. Someone has apparently put a hefty bounty on your head, and while I'm not sure why, I have a hunch.\"\n\n\"Seems like the secret wasn't as secret as we thought,\" Lumi added.\n\n\"Not necessarily. Apollo could sense that something was odd about Ryan's aura, so technically any lucario and psychic type we passed could've noticed it too,\" Lily assessed. \"But it doesn't matter how it happened. At least we now know that we need to be extra vigilant.\"\n\nAs the others talked, Ryan's awe at the zorua's illusion turned into deep dread, and the cold shiver that ran down his spine was almost strong enough to knock him off his shaky feet. \"Two thousand pieces of gold for me? But why? What do they want from me?\"\n\n\"I do not know, but I'll make sure they'll never get you,\" Lily growled, menacing darkness swirling around her head. \"Anyway, Chester is right. Let's get going. The more space we get between us and them, the better.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Chester replied. \"I'll go ahead. Lily, you take the rearguard, and Lumi, you stay with Ryan.\"\n\n\"Will do!\" the snowy vulpix chirped, demonstratively twining his tails around Ryan's tail.\n\nHowever, their plan failed the moment they started moving, as the eevee didn't manage to set a single foot forward. Instead, his trembling legs gave out completely and he flopped onto the ground like an empty waterskin.\n\n\"Stop! Ryan's fallen,\" Lily yelled.\n\n\"Sorry for that. Just give me a…\" Ryan dragged himself to his feet, but he immediately collapsed again. On his next few attempts, he didn't even manage to get up at all. \"I'm sorry. I just can't… I can't…\" Exhaustion and dread mixed with frustration to leave him on the verge of tears, but fortunately, he wasn't alone as the others gathered around him.\n\n\"It's okay. That was a lot all at once,\" Lily whispered, gently nuzzling the eevee's side.\n\nPlacing one paw on his other, Lumi nodded, \"You gave it your all, so it's natural that you're exhausted now.\"\n\nGlancing at the Alolan vulpix, a strained smile grew on Ryan's lips. \"Exhausted enough for one of your energy potions?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes! Right! Wait, let me get one for you real quick.\" Lumi nodded and headed toward Chester to fetch a bottle of the swirling golden potion from his saddlebags. He uncorked it and carefully pressed it against the eevee's muzzle, tilting it just enough that he could drink it in small gulps.\n\nRyan's first sip was so shaky that he spilled half of the honey-colored liquid, but the next was already much steadier as a surge of fresh energy rushed through him. It was like waking up and taking an invigorating bath at the same time. Finally, after emptying the flask, he jumped up and managed to stay on his feet, even if his legs were still shaking slightly. \"Wow, this is awesome! Thank you so much, Lumi!\"\n\n\"You're welcome, Ryan,\" Lumi giggled, nuzzling his cheek.\n\nWith that, Team Wildwoods finally got going again, continuing their hike to the source of Emerald Creek and beyond for as long as the sun was still up. However, there was no more chatter between them as Lily, Lumi, and Chester kept their eyes and full attention on their surroundings. Still closed in by cliffs from both sides, they weren't out of the woods yet, and as Ryan walked his mind filled the silence with questions and worries. Who wanted him? Why did they want him? What would they do if they got him?\n\nWorst of all, whoever had put up the bounty probably knew the answer to the eevee's other questions too, namely who had brought him to Gaia and for what reason.\n\nWhenever Ryan wasn't thinking about the sinister figure behind his attempted abduction, the fight with the bandits played before his mind's eye in unpleasant, visceral detail. The memory alone got his heart racing and left him short of breath, but a gentle caress snapped him out of it before it overwhelmed him.\n\n\"It's a lot to process, isn't it?\" Lumi whispered, brushing his tails against Ryan's as he came so close that their hips almost touched.\n\n\"Mhm,\" Ryan muttered.\n\n\"The first fight is always the hardest. Later fights can be tougher, but nothing stays in your memory as much as the first one,\" the Alolan vulpix said. \"But you did really well! Certainly better than I did on my first fight.\"\n\n\"Your first fight?\" Ryan asked, his ears perking up as he looked at the snowy male. \"What was it like?\"\n\n\"Honestly, it wasn't anything special. I was still an apprentice at the time and had joined one of the exploration teams on a routine patrol when we ran into a group of bandits. Four of us, four of them. An even match-up, you'd think.\" Lumi let out an agonized chuckle. \"Guess who surged ahead and got his ass handed to him?\"\n\n\"O-oh no,\" Ryan stammered. \"Did you get knocked out?\"\n\n\"No, but almost,\" Lumi replied, pensively looking at the sky above. \"But even if I had gotten knocked out, I had a whole team backing me up, and that's what's the most important thing. When you do missions, you're bound to get into a fight at some point, but as a Garnet Paw, you'll never have to face it alone. You'll always have the skills and experience of others at your side.\"\n\nThe Alolan vulpix's words relieved some of the weight on Ryan's mind. Of course, he knew that he wasn't alone, but having it confirmed by his teammate was perhaps even more restorative than the energy potion, and so were the snowy alchemist's other stories about his previous battles. He and the others of Team Wildwoods had mentioned fights with ruffians and bandits before, but only now that the eevee had experienced real combat did he truly understand what the vulpix told him. Plus, knowing that Lumi had been in the same spot as him before comforted him even more, and at least for the time being, the tales kept him distracted from the fact that there was a huge bounty on his head.\n\nAbout an hour later, Team Wildwoods reached the source of Emerald Creek, but it proved nothing more than an inconspicuous trickle of water on the wayside. Their real destination lay another mile further, at the very end of the narrow, overgrown trail. They reached it just as the sky veiled itself with thick gray clouds, snuffing out the orange rays of the setting sun.\n\n\"There we are. Emerald cabin. The most luxurious lodging around these parts,\" Chester was first to announce, and although he pointed his hoof forward, Ryan had to look several times before he spotted their shelter nestled in a rocky recess. Dark, weathered logs embraced the entrance, and beyond the crude door waited a round chamber with a low roof, a floor of packed dirt, and roughly hewn stone walls, the air slightly stale with the lingering smell of resin and its previous occupants. But the primitive first look was deceiving as it featured an elaborate, well-crafted brick fireplace with a black steel door and narrow holes in the walls for proper airflow. A flat, spread-out heap of dried grass in the corner served as a sleeping spot, a neat, tidy stack of dry firewood in another corner provided fuel for the fire, and there was a wooden ladder in the back that led to a hole in the ceiling.\n\n\"Where does that lead?\" Ryan wondered, pointing at the latter.\n\n\"That's the emergency exit, in case you can't get out of the door for some reason,\" Lumi explained while he helped Chester unload his saddlebags. Then he grabbed the blankets and dragged them toward the makeshift straw mattress. \"Alright, Ryan and I are going to take care of the bed and fireplace.\"\n\n\"Good. I'll head out with Chester to fetch some food and fresh firewood,\" Lily agreed, giving the Galarian ponyta a playful swat with her tail before they turned around and headed out to forage.\n\n\"Why firewood? There's an entire pile already here,\" Ryan asked.\n\n\"Yes, but it's good manners to gather new firewood with every stay, so there's always enough dry firewood for the next visitors,\" Lumi replied while he draped one of the blankets over the straw and pushed it down with his forepaws. \"Also, mind getting some logs while I prepare our bed?\"\n\n\"Of course!\" The eevee nodded and headed to the pile to grab a few logs, or at least attempt to. He had had a few weeks to grow accustomed to his paws so far, but most of that process had involved learning about all the things he couldn't easily do with them, like carrying anything. In contrast, his muzzle proved much more useful as he chomped down on a piece with the base of a branch protruding and dragged it across the cabin.\n\n\"Did they nick the carrying sling again?\"\n\n\"The what?\" Ryan dropped the piece of wood, the taste of resin on his lips as he stared at the snowy vulpix. Then he looked back at the log pile. Upon repeat inspection, he spotted a stone wedge and an assortment of strings and fabric beside it, and when he unfolded the latter, it turned out to be the sling Lumi mentioned. \"Oh, no. I just… I forgot to check.\" Blushing into the tips of his ears, the eevee pulled a few more logs onto the patch of textile, wrapped them up, and grabbed the loose, slightly frayed loops of string with his muzzle to carry the whole bunch over to the fireplace.\n\nAs Ryan dropped the wood, he briefly wondered how many others had been chewing on the strings in his muzzle, and he immediately spat them out with a disgusted choke. Another thing he wasn't sure if he would ever get used to. Luckily, most items and bags he had to carry belonged to Team Wildwoods, and that rope had been lying there for a while, so it should be fine, right?\n\n\"Are you okay there?\" Lumi giggled, grinning at the eevee while he walked back and forth on the blanket, stomping down and flattening all bumps and irregularities.\n\nRyan stared at the strings for another moment. Then he nodded. \"Yeah, I'll manage.\"\n\n\"Good. Mind looking for the flint and tinder? It should be in one of the saddlebags.\"\n\nWith another nod, the eevee headed toward the bags and started digging until he found the shiny black stone and a bundle of oil-soaked paper, grass, and tinder as a firestarter. After placing the tools on top of the log pile, he opened the fireplace door, but he left it up to the ice type to stack the logs inside the fireplace.\n\n\"Maybe you'll evolve into a flareon someday?\" Lumi joked as he started to bash the flint against a protruding screw in the door, trying to coax a spark out of it.\n\n\"Perhaps, but probably not,\" Ryan muttered, absently staring at the other male's efforts. A warm, crackling fire sounded nice and comfy, but nothing more. He wasn't nearly as fascinated by it as what Gwen had told him about her brother.\n\n\"Jolteon would work too. Or espeon. Just anything other than an ice type,\" the snowy vulpix giggled. It took a few attempts, and after the first spark missed its target, the second managed to light the oily tinder on fire. He hastily shoved it deeper into the logs. Then he bounced back. \"Okay, there we go. Done.\"\n\nNow it was time to wait for the others to return, and when Ryan climbed onto the blanket, making himself comfortable on the surprisingly comfy bedding, his thoughts caught up with him. No more walking, no more tasks, and no more tales to distract him from the nasty reality that someone was out to get him.\n\n\"Thinking about the bandits again?\" Lumi asked gently. Dropping beside the eevee, he wrapped three tails around his back and cuddled up against him.\n\nRyan swallowed. \"No. It's about why they wanted me.\"\n\n\"I see,\" the vulpix whispered, nuzzling the eevee's cheek. \"Honestly, I'm just as eager to find out, and then give them an ass-whooping.\"\n\nRyan let out a choked chuckle. \"I mean, I'll probably find out if they succeed.\"\n\n\"They won't,\" Lumi stated with unconditional confidence. \"They'll have to get past us and deal with all of the Garnet Paws first, so there's no way they'll get you.\"\n\n\"I hope so.\"\n\n\"Don't worry. We're behind you every step of the way, Ryan, and I'm going to freeze anyone who tries anything funny with you.\"\n\nRyan looked at the Alolan vulpix, a shaky smile on his muzzle. \"Thank you, Lumi.\"\n\n\"You're welcome,\" Lumi cooed. Then he pointed a paw at the wall, where a battered, scratched plank of wood rimmed the straw bed. \"You know what those markings mean?\"\n\n\"It's one for each visitor?\" the eevee suggested as he recognized a crude pattern in the claw marks.\n\nLumi's grin widened. \"You're pretty close. It's actually a list of how many of them had sex in this very bed,\" he explained, tracing the last few lines with a claw. \"That way, you know when it's time to toss out the old straw and get some new.\"\n\n\"Oh.\" Ryan's ears folded back in embarrassment as he looked at the board once more. There were so many marks, more than he wanted to count and more than he expected for some shack in the hinterlands, perhaps two hundred in total. If it was already that much here, he struggled to imagine the activity the beds in the Sunken Pearl in Minty Meadows were seeing…\n\n\"I don't think we need to change the straw yet, though. It's only been two groups since the last change,\" the Alolan vulpix assessed, nudging Ryan with his snout. \"Want to add another mark?\"\n\nThe eevee shivered at the initial remark, and he shivered even harder at the suggestion, especially as his companion shifted closer and raised one hindleg to rub his sheath against his thigh. Part of Ryan hesitated, still hung up on the ambush. However, Lumi's eagerness soon rubbed off on him as he showered him with licks and nuzzles, dispelling his lingering dread for the moment. \"Yes,\" he whispered. \"But maybe nothing too wild?\"\n\n\"Of course,\" Lumi giggled, licking Ryan across the muzzle before he hooked one paw under the eevee's chest and gently guided him onto his side. Once their bellies faced each other, he shifted even closer until their sheaths touched, the sliver of pink poking from Ryan's sheath pressing against his petite, already half-erect taper and the eevee's huge, furry nuts fully enveloping his snug sack. Hugging the other male tightly and interlocking two tails with his, he then started to slowly and casually hump against him. \"Cuddling it is.\"\n\nThe eevee sighed softly. A comforting rush of warmth washed through him as he wrapped his paws around the fluffy white vulpix and lazily humped back. \"Yes, this is perfect.\" All his remaining burdens and worries from the day melted away like snow in the summer heat as he embraced the gentle, tingly rush of stimulation with another breathy moan.\n\nThen, Lumi nudged Ryan's snout, licked his lips, and invited him into a deep kiss, locking muzzles and intertwining tongues in a hot, wet dance. Their slippery smacks were joined by an unmistakable shlicking as their stiffening cocks glided against each other in a shining layer of sweat and pre, and before long, the eevee's huge, fattening rod was soaking both of their bellies with his sticky scent as he lost himself in the slow, lewd rhythm.\n\nRyan could've spent the rest of time like that, making out and frotting with the enchanting Alolan vulpix, but not even a minute later, the cabin's door opened with a loud creak and thud. \"Hey, Ryan, Lumi, we're back!\" Lily announced, only to squeal with delight when she spotted the two entangled males on the bed. \"Oh, Chester, look!\"\n\n\"Looks like someone couldn't wait,\" Chester chuckled and closed the door behind them, a big bundle of branches and a pouch bulging with berries on his back.\n\n\"We were all done and Ryan was in the mood for cuddles, so what can you do?\" Lumi giggled. Breaking away from the eevee, he rolled onto his back and showed off his soft, fluffy underbelly and his twitching, dripping taper. \"Anyway, why don't you drop your stuff and come join us?\"\n\n\"Ryan is right. Cuddles sound like a wonderful idea,\" the Galarian ponyta nickered and deposited the wood and berries on his back beside the stack in the corner. Then he ambled toward the two males on the straw bed. With a thump, he lay down next to them, sprawling himself on his side with all fours stretched out and his sparkling, cottony mane and tail draped across half of the blanket. Tapping one hoof on the bed, he cooed, \"Come here, you two~\"\n\nUnlike Ryan, Chester wasn't hard yet, but the fat sliver of pink peeking from his sheath was no less tantalizing, and the eevee found himself at the perfect angle to view his full set, including his huge, leathery balls and his puffy, sweaty tailhole. Even more intriguing than the sight was that the day of walking and exertion had veiled the psychic stallion in a thick, muzzle-watering musk that drew Ryan in like a mothim to the moonlight. He wasn't alone in this either, as Lumi leered at his teammate's bits with his nose twitching and drool spilling from his lips.\n\nThe eevee and the Alolan vulpix looked at each other for a heartbeat. Lumi's muzzle twisted into a naughty grin while Ryan shivered with surging arousal, their tails swishing in eager unison. At the other male's nod, the eevee lunged forward to claim his part of the lounging stud, cuddling against Chester's hindlegs from behind and shoving his muzzle into the crease between his plump, swollen breeding orbs. He sampled a deep breath of the stallion's scent, only to shake even harder as the powerful musk blurred his vision and made his head spin. With a breathy moan, he then darted out his tongue and treated that divine sack to a wide, sloppy lick, mixing his saliva with the ponyta's salty sweat.\n\n\"Oh yes, that's perfect. Good boys,\" the Galarian ponyta nickered. \"Work those greedy tongues~\"\n\nThere was something special about Chester's aroma that made Ryan flare up with arousal. His musk was richer and more addictive than Lumi's or Lily's scent, and since their first sparring, he had come to appreciate it even more than his other two subby teammates. Slowly dragging his nose up to the Galarian ponyta's perineum, he inhaled even more of the stud's musk with deep, noisy breaths while hugging his balls against his chest and worshiping everything in his muzzle's reach with wet slurps and kisses. All the while, his partner's deliciously puffy, sweat-shining pucker was just above his face, gently twitching as it waited its turn.\n\nChester's plump hole suddenly contracted hard and a horny neigh burst from his muzzle when the zorua joined forces with the vulpix.\n\n\"Don't forget about me, big boy~\" Lily warbled. With Lumi in front of the ponyta's hindlegs and her nestling upside-down against his belly, they both pressed their muzzles against his shaft, smooching, sniffing, and lapping at his flat, swollen cock head, at the base where it glided out of its thick, leathery sheath, and everything in between to make him snort and shiver with growing delight.\n\nThe next time Chester's pucker teasingly winked at Ryan, he could no longer resist its call. He slipped his head underneath the psychic ponyta's glittering tail and hugged his fluffy, musclebound buttocks with both forelegs while his own achingly erect, drooling taper slotted perfectly into the cleft between the larger male's balls and thighs. Too horny to control himself, the eevee instinctively thrust his hips forward and began to sluggishly hump against Chester's sack while his whole mind and attention zeroed in on the puffy, puckered pink hole in front of him.\n\nAs with the stallion's balls, Ryan shoved his snout against his fat asshole and took a deep breath, flooding his nose and lungs with an even rawer, sweatier variant of his addictive musk. It was so intense that he burst into a needy whine, almost choking on his own drool before he put his spit to better use. He planted a fat, sloppy kiss onto that clenching orifice, allowing his saliva to wash over Chester's butthole before proceeding with a wide, circling lick around its outer rim. Then another closer to the center before he dragged his taster across it in an X, smothering his taste buds with a full helping of the bigger male's delicious, earthy flavors.\n\n\"Ah, this is so good,\" the Galarian ponyta neighed with delight. The eevee couldn't tell whether it was from him spit-washing his ring, from Lumi sucking on his sheath, or from Lily teasingly tonguing his urethra, but it hardly mattered as it was primarily his cue to go deeper. He swirled his tongue around the larger male's clenching ring one more time before he plunged it inside, gliding it deeper and deeper until his lips went flush with his puffy pucker.\n\nThe sheer rush of aroma briefly stunned Ryan. A shaky groan drooled from his muzzle as he clenched all four paws around Chester's thighs and backside. Then he went to work, curling and twisting his taster inside his partner's tight ass and spelunking for his pleasure button to elicit more of those delicious neighs and whinnies from him. It took all but five seconds until he found his target, and he immediately started thrusting with his hips and tongue, slamming the tip of his slippery muscle against that most sensitive spot inside the stallion's butt while gliding his taper against his balls, slathering his silky fur and insides with spit and pre.\n\n\"Oooooaah, our little musk slut is going all in again,\" Chester groaned, much to Lumi's and Lily's giggly delight.\n\n\"Must be heaven to get worshiped by all three of us, right?\" Lumi cooed.\n\n\"Also, how about you put your noisy muzzle to better use and get a taste of this?\" Lily added. While Ryan couldn't see what she was offering, he heard it all the more. Wet slurps and squelches filled his ears as the Galarian ponyta unleashed all his pent-up arousal on the zorua's spade, licking and sucking on her fat sex with the same ardor that the eevee devoted to his butthole, and as if his snorts and her blissful squeals weren't thrilling enough, Lumi gave Ryan's tapered tip a few sneaky licks every time he thrust it through Chester's thighs.\n\nRyan could've kept going forever like this, humping the ponyta's thighs and making out with his ring. Worshiping him together with Lily and Lumi until the sheer onslaught of stimulation turned the fledgling tingle in his loins into an explosive orgasm, but Chester had a different plan in mind.\n\n\"Ryan, since you've proven yourself in your first real fight, how about a little treat?\" the Galarian ponyta purred.\n\nRyan's ears perked up and he broke away from his making-out session with Chester's ring. A strand of spit and juices dangled between his lips and the ponyta's asshole as he looked at him with big, curious eyes. \"A treat?\" What better treat could there even be than what he was already enjoying?\n\nChester brushed his fluffy tail across the eevee's chin. \"How do you feel about mounting and knotting a big, strong stud?\"\n\nThe zorua and the Alolan vulpix pulled away from the stallion's cock, gasping in unison as they looked at him and Ryan.\n\nThe eevee's jaw dropped and his tail stopped wagging, stiffening and trembling with surprise. He kept staring at Chester, trying to tell whether the other male was being serious. Always dominant, always on top, he had never seen him take anything beyond a tongue up his butt. \"Are you sure?\"\n\n\"Yes. Just this once. My special reward for you tonight,\" the Galarian ponyta nickered and licked his lips, waggling his rump at him. \"Besides, I want to know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of that fat, juicy schlong.\" He teasingly squeezed his thighs around Ryan's taper. \"There has to be a reason why these two here always lose their horny minds when you shove it inside them. So how about it? Ready to become the third male ever to mount me?\"\n\nOn cue, Lumi winked at Ryan.\n\nObviously, the eevee couldn't turn down the opportunity to join such an exclusive circle, and besides, he was burning to know what that plump, puffy ring felt like wrapped around his knot. \"Oh yes, I'd love to!\" he gasped and released Chester's butt from his hug to get up. His legs were quaking with excitement, so he needed a few attempts to stay on his paws, but once he was standing, he quickly jumped onto the ponyta, mounting him like Lily, Lumi, and the others before him. He even took a moment to properly align his leaking tip with that wonderfully plump ring, gently gliding it against the tight, twitching center with a smack.\n\n\"Good boy,\" the Galarian stud purred, brushing his glittering tail around the eevee's head. \"Now get to it and don't you dare hold back, Ryan. Give me all you got.\" He turned his head toward him, his dark blue, starry eyes twinkling with lust. \"Fuck me!\"\n\nEven as a bottom, Chester lost nothing of his natural dominance, and the eevee complied with his order in a heartbeat. He thrust his hips forward and glided his taper into the psychic ponyta's ass, spreading his plump ring and his wonderfully warm, wet insides with the first three inches. Just deep enough to hit his partner's prostate, his plunge was rewarded by a powerful clench and a boisterous neigh, which encouraged him to push even deeper. Wrapping one paw around the bigger male's flank and burying the other deep inside his cottony tail, Ryan managed to sink another three inches inside him before he pulled back and started to loosen the stallion's deeper depths with eager thrusts.\n\n\"Oh, your ass feels so good. So tight. So soft,\" the eevee sputtered out between moans, wetter and noisier slurps accompanying his every hump as Chester's clenching ass squeezed the pre out of his cock. Not to mention the delicious groans and smacks coming from Lily and Lumi as the Alolan vulpix hugged her from behind and shoved his petite pecker into her fat spade in a horny frenzy. However, the two never forgot about the Galarian ponyta's cock, slurping and servicing their teammate's huge, throbbing horse cock with unwavering devotion while they helped each other with their overwhelming arousal.\n\nThe sight and sound of the mating couple riled the eevee up even more. While he couldn't reach far enough to join them in worshiping the stallion's veiny shaft, he licked and huffed Chester's sweaty side with all the more enthusiasm. All the while, his hips turned into a blur, resounding claps joining his throaty serenade of bliss as his swinging nuts slapped against his partner's musclebound thigh.\n\n\"There we go. So nice and big, so noisy and needy,\" the Galarian ponyta nickered, playfully wrapping his tail around the smaller male. \"Keep going and don't stop until you've buried that fat, delicious knot of yours inside me.\"\n\nChester's voice was shaking a little and his starry eyes sparkled with pure lust, but although Ryan was rutting him in a feral frenzy, he never lost his composure. Lily had yielded to her lust, Lumi had succumbed to his arousal, Millie and Gwen had given in to his fervor, but not the psychic stallion. No, he cherished the wild pounding with the same casual delight as a lavish meal or a thorough massage, groaning softly while goading the eevee on even more. \"Good boy. Let it all out~ And you two, open wide. I'm about to give you a little treat.\"\n\nA powerful ripple raced through the ponyta and he erupted with a thundering neigh. His huge, swollen balls clenched up and his massive shaft flexed in Lily's embrace as he splattered the first thick, sticky rope of cum across her underside and the blanket underneath them, marking her, the bed, and the entire cabin as his domain for the night. Meanwhile, the sudden contractions of his ass hit Ryan with the might of a galloping mudsdale. Already careening toward the edge, he stood no chance against the intense massage, and within the next three thrusts, his knot slipped out of his sheath. \"Fuck! I'm also getting close!\"\n\n\"Knot me!\" Chester commanded.\n\nNot that the eevee needed encouragement. So close to his climax, burying his swollen, sensitive bulb inside that clenching hole was the only thought left on his mind, his only remaining purpose as he slammed his taper into Chester and pushed his knot against the puffy ring with gritted teeth and desperate whines. Again and again. Harder and harder until, finally, it went inside and ended his frantic rutting with a resounding, satisfying pop.\n\n\"Oooh, your knot is bigger than I expected,\" the psychic male burst out. His eyes rolled back into his head as his composure finally cracked, and he launched a spurt of seed all across the bed and against the fireplace's brick chimney, painting it with gooey, glistening white.\n\nRyan responded with a guttural cry of bliss as his brain melted down under the perfect onslaught of stimulation. His balls started to dance as violently as Chester's breeding orbs, churning up a torrential load for the bigger male. Spurt after spurt, he flooded his guts with hot seed, squirt after squirt, he reduced the proud stud to a moaning, shaking heap of pleasure. Not that things were any different for him as not a single straight thought remained in the roiling storm of ecstasy in his head.\n\nThe eevee spent the next minute tightly hugged against Chester's hot, sweaty ass, licking and drooling on his fur with one hindpaw braced against the ponyta's clenching sack while his asshole sucked him dry with insatiable contractions. To him, it felt like an eternity of perfection. Perfection that became even more perfect when Lumi followed his example and tied Lily, leaving her squealing in bliss while she got painted from the inside and out. An evening as many before with them, yet unique and exhilarating in a way that Ryan couldn't get enough of, that left him hungry for more even while he was already tied and busy cumming.\n\n\"Wow, I know you're productive, Ryan, but this is getting ridiculous. It's so much! No wonder you leave everyone looking pregnant after you're done with them,\" Chester nickered, one hoof folded against his belly as his own prodigious eruption drew to a close. Swiveling his head toward the eevee, he pursed his lips and fluttered his eyelashes at him. \"I can't wait to see how much more you're going to pump inside me.\"\n\nRyan nodded with a blissed-out whimper, but his initial high started fading once Chester's climax ceased and his asshole stopped clenching. It didn't fade completely, though. As long as he was still tied, he remained a shaking, sweaty pile of orgasmic bliss on top of the larger male's side, still spurting away. \"Your ass feels so good. I could do this every day.\"\n\n\"We'll see about that,\" the Galarian ponyta chuckled, wrapping his tail even more tightly around the eevee.\n\nBefore Ryan could think too much about Chester's response, Lumi chimed in with a cheeky grin, \"Better than my ass?\"\n\n\"I- I don't know. And I honestly don't care,\" Ryan moaned, absently kissing the psychic's fur. \"Your ass, Chester's ass, Lily's ass, it's all amazing, I could never choose.\" He sighed with a dreamy smile, fantasizing as much about the zorua's tight spade as about the snowy vulpix's tailhole. Then his gaze fell on the ponyta's huge, veiny fuck meat, soaked with spit and still drooling with leftover cum as it lay in a whole sticky puddle. The stallion's eruption had left Lily completely drenched, himself and Lumi covered in stray splatters, and the blanket and bedding were thoroughly imbued with his smell, no matter how thoroughly they cleaned up afterward. What would it be like to have all this inside him? An electrifying thrill washed through the eevee, making his cock pulse and squirt with reinvigorated energy.\n\n\"Oooh, what are you thinking about?\" Chester snorted in surprise.\n\n\"I think I know exactly what's going on in that fluffy head of his right now,\" Lumi cooed with a naughty grin, demonstratively dragging his tongue across the Galarian ponyta's swollen shaft.\n\n\"Y-you know what? If I really had to choose, I would want to take you instead,\" Ryan admitted with a burning blush on his cheeks.\n\n\"Ah, I see,\" Chester nickered and winked at the eevee. \"Don't worry. Just a bit more practice, and you're ready for me to claim that tight, little tailhole of yours, making you squeal like a needy little bitch in heat.\"\n\n\"So just like Lumi?\" Lily giggled.\n\n\"Hey!\" the Alolan vulpix protested with a fake pout.\n\n\"Come on. Like you're not the biggest slut of the three of you,\" Chester remarked with a smirk. \"Anyway, how about you two get to cleaning while our lucky boy here is enjoying his tie~?\"\n\nAnd how Ryan was enjoying it! Even if he would've loved to join the vulpix and zorua as they showered the Galarian ponyta's softening, retracting member with licks and affection. Instead, he was left drooling and moaning as the gentle contractions of Chester's hole softened the blow as a whole day of walking caught up with him. But his mounting exhaustion couldn't wipe the smile off his muzzle. At least for now, he was too blissed-out to think about the assault and all its implications or about the days of journey still ahead of him.\n\nThat was something for future Ryan to worry about.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": ""Alright, your turn now," Max chirped, winking at Ryan when a pokemon stepped onto the steel grate above the earth-walled pit they were in. Or rather, landed on it with a metallic thunk.

"Wait, what do you mean?" The eevee shot the grinning mienfoo a stunned look.

"It means it's your turn to identify the pokemon above. Just take another look at this if you can't figure it out," Max responded, pointing at the large flowchart of feet, paws, talons, and other features on the wall beside him. "And I know you can do it." Then he tilted back his head and addressed the visitor, "Hold! Who is approaching the gate? Identify yourself!"

"Name's Reyka. I'm bringing the mail," a raspy voice responded.

"The mail? From which post office do you hail?" the mienfoo followed up.

"The office in the east of Minty Meadows. I'm new," the visitor replied. "I'm a pidgeot."

While they spoke, Ryan stared at the shadow on top of the grate with narrowed eyes, trying to decipher who and what exactly he was looking at. He glanced at the flowchart, searching for the talons that matched the courier's claim, only to get lost on the wrong half of the diagram for far too long before he finally located the section about bird pokemon talons.

"What's your verdict?" Max asked.

Taking one more glimpse at the flowchart, Ryan nodded with cautious certainty. "I- I think it's a pidgeot?"

"What's the holdup down there?" Reyka demanded to know, the impatience in her voice not helping the eevee's confidence at all.

"Nothing! I'm just instructing an apprentice right now, that's all. I'll let you in in just a moment," the mienfoo yelled before he cocked his head at Ryan. "How can you tell?"

"Uhhhhh… she has talons?" Ryan muttered, squinting up at the courier once again. "And beige downs. Amber tail feathers. Right?"

"Correct. She's carrying a bag and is about the right size for a pidgeot too, but most importantly, her talons have three front toes, one hallux, pink skin, and silver claws. Plus, they have a very characteristic girth, which makes them surprisingly soft and squishy," Max assessed, a sudden dreaminess in his eyes as he peered at the visitor's feet. Not to mention the twitch of his half-chub. "Anyway, her story checks out, but I have to make a note for future reference." He flipped two levers on a console on the packed dirt wall. One rang a bell in the guardhouse, and the other triggered the opening mechanism for the guild's massive front gate.

"Thank you," the voice called from above.

"You're welcome," Max yelled back. Then he stepped past Ryan, selecting a rubber stamp with a pidgeot's talon from a whole wall of stamps with no second's hesitation. He pushed it onto a green ink pad, then onto the ledger that listed every arrival and departure before he signed it with the courier's name, intent, and arrival time. "I do have to contact the post office in Minty Meadows to confirm that she's from there, but I can do that later."

Ryan watched the mienfoo with an open muzzle. Even after watching him identify dozens of pokemon over the last hour, he was still amazed by the other male's ability to recognize all of them by the shape of their feet. Not to mention how effortlessly he navigated the several hundred different rubber stamps. "What happens if you get it wrong?"

With a proud smile, Max reached for one of the older ledgers on the shelves beside them, brushed off the dust, and opened it. "Mistakes happen, but as long as you correct them, it's usually fine," he replied, pointing a finger at a crossed-out line with a correction in red beside it.

The fact that Ryan didn't see a red pen or ink pad anywhere told him all he needed to know. "Wow. When did that happen?"

"About a year ago, I think?" The mienfoo glimpsed at the ledger's cover. "Yeah, about a year, give or take."

"That's about as long as I needed to find you, Ryan," a gruff, but familiar voice chimed in from behind. Jig had emerged from the narrow, steel-shod wood door that connected Max's earthy domain with the rest of Garnet Paws Guild, and the guild leader's bodyguard looked ever-so-slightly grumpier than usual as he advanced toward the eevee. "Looked everywhere but in our foot guy's foot lair."

"I'm glad to see you too, Jig," Max chortled.

Ryan tilted his head in curiosity. "Hey, Jig. You were looking for me?"

"Yeah. Come. Luna wants to talk to you," the poochyena grunted before he turned around and left without further comment.

"Oh, uhh, okay! I'm coming!" Ryan responded, shaking with sudden excitement. He wasn't sure what the absol wanted to tell him, but it could only mean that there was news about his situation! He hurriedly nodded at the mienfoo before he dashed after Jig. "Sorry, Max, gotta go!"

"No worries. I wouldn't leave Luna waiting either," Max chuckled, giving the eevee a quick wave before he looked up as the next pokemon approached the gates.

Ryan chased the poochyena down a dusky corridor, up a spiral staircase, across the guild's courtyard, through the quest room, and up another two floors, ending up slightly winded by the time they reached the guild leader's office. Inside, Luna, Apollo, and the rest of Team Wildwoods awaited him with the large, gravid absol guild leader splayed on her wide, luxurious lounger and the others seated on silky red seat cushions in front of her.

"Hey!" the eevee gasped, his heart pounding not only from the mad dash but also with excitement. He stumbled toward the group and plopped down on the last empty seat between Lily and Lumi. "You wanted to talk to me?"

Luna greeted the eevee with a warm, melodic chuckle and a wave of her paw. "Welcome, Ryan. I'm glad that Jig managed to locate you because we have important news for you."

Ryan's heart thumped even faster. "Important news? Did you find out why I'm here?"

"No. Unfortunately, we haven't found out anything specific yet, but we have an idea who might know more," the absol responded, curbing the eevee's enthusiasm before she looked at the gardevoir. "Apollo, would you be so kind and present your findings?"

"With the greatest pleasure, Luna," the gardevoir spoke, his voice soft and warm like a comfy blanket. "I do not know whether any of you have noticed it, but there is a special flavor to your aura, Ryan. It's incredibly faint, an ephemeral overtone that I initially dismissed as a figment of my imagination, but I've sensed it every time I've met you since, and another guild member has told me something similar. I cannot tell where it's coming from, but it feels like someone powerful has left a mark on you that they tried their best to hide."

"Someone powerful?" Ryan asked with a shiver. "Do you think it's the pokemon that brought me here?"

"Perhaps, but I cannot say for sure. I am not experienced enough to decipher the originator or their intention from the mark alone, but I do know someone who should have a better chance at it," Apollo said. "Her name is Nim. She is the protector of the Whispering Woods. I contacted her, and she is willing to take a look at you."

"Oh? That's great!" Ryan trembled even harder as the revelation sent a tingling wave of hot and cold through him. "When… when can I meet her?"

"That is the crux of the matter," Luna chimed in, her anklets tinkling as she gestured with her paw. "Nim never leaves her realm and subjects, so you would have to travel to the Whispering Woods to meet her. Unfortunately, the journey won't be nearly as easy as any of your previous missions, but your teammates have assured me that the progress you've made over the last two weeks will be sufficient for this endeavor." She looked at Lily, Lumi, and Chester, waiting for each to nod before she moved on. "However, it is ultimately up to you to decide whether you're ready or not."

"How difficult will it be?" the eevee asked, kneading his seat cushion with both forepaws as he was torn between excitement and slight concern.

"First of all, it takes three or four days to get there, so the whole trip would take at least a week," the absol stated.

Ryan nodded, trying not to think too much about how sore his feet would get. Hopefully, Lumi had enough of his magical salve on paw.

"Secondly, a substantial part of the journey lies outside of our guild's territory, so you have to watch out for bandits and highwaymen," Luna added. "Chester spoke highly of your intensive training sessions and your evasive skills, but no training can capture the threat and tension of real combat. Do you feel ready to face groups of hostile pokemon?"

This time Ryan didn't nod immediately. Instead, he turned to the Galarian ponyta with a worried frown.

Chester put on a reassuring grin and asserted without missing a beat, "I've seen what you're capable of, Ryan, and I believe that you can do it. Also, we have your back, no matter what, and it's far from our first escort mission into dangerous territory."

Lumi corroborated the ponyta's words with encouraging nods, and Lily added, "I would carry you there on my back if I had to."

Ryan still felt a little uneasy at the prospect of dealing with actual enemies, but knowing that he would head there with a team of experienced explorers allayed most of his worries. Finally, he announced, "Okay, I'm ready. I will do it!"

"Are you absolutely sure?" the guild leader asked, a cautious smile on her muzzle.

"Yes! The sooner we figure this out, the better," Ryan asserted and jumped up, his tail wagging wildly as his excitement returned full force.

"Very well then. Apollo, please inform Nim that Team Wildwoods is on the way," Luna chuckled. "Don't let me keep you any longer, but promise me you'll stay safe and watch yourselves out there, okay?"

"Yes, we will! And thank you so much, Luna. Thank you so much, Apollo, for helping me out with this. I wouldn't even know where to start without you," Ryan said.

"You're more than welcome, Ryan. Besides, we're just as eager to solve this riddle as you are," the absol laughed, dismissing Team Wildwoods with a wave of her paw. "See you soon."

"See you, Luna!" Ryan chirped, waving back at the guild leader before he whirled around and dashed out of her office as fast as his paws would carry him.

The eevee was so excited he would've liked to run downstairs and leave the guild without further ado, but he begrudgingly curbed his own enthusiasm and went up to his team's bedroom to help with the necessary preparations. Fortunately, Lumi always made sure that everything was well-organized and in its proper place, so it only took them a few minutes to pack two saddlebags with bread, dried berries, the Alolan vulpix's precious salve, and a few more potions, put them on Chester's back, and don their red guild scarves. They each grabbed a waterskin as well, and not even half an hour later, they were on their way.

Ryan had a peppy spring in his step as he followed Chester through the guild's front gate. With Lily and Lumi at his side, he looked at them and asked, "So, what are the Whispering Woods like?"

"That's a good question," the zorua replied. "I haven't been there for a while since it's outside the Garnet Paws's purview."

"Yes, we don't get there often, but it's a lovely place with very welcoming inhabitants. A dense needleleaf forest with a canopy so thick that you rarely see the sun, but it's a tranquil, cozy twilight," the Alolan vulpix added. "Like a big bed with the trees as the blanket and the soft forest floor as the mattress."

"That sounds nice," the eevee said. "Will it really take us four days to get there?"

"Yes, roundabout that long if you're not in a hurry," Lumi responded. "First we'll follow Emerald Creek to the source, which is at the edge of the guild's reach, and it'll be north across the hill ranges from there until we get to the Whispering Woods."

Ryan nodded, his tail beginning to ache as it still wagged furiously with no signs of slowing down. This was his first proper mission! Sure, carrying stuff and finding things in the woods and meadows around Garnet Paws Guild had been good training and even tricky sometimes, but so far, no mission had lasted longer than a morning or afternoon while this outing would last several days! An actual adventure! "By the way, where are we gonna stay for the night? Are there any towns or villages on the way?"

Lumi burst into giggles and Lily shook her head, remarking, "Nope. That's another reason why we rarely head to the Whispering Woods. It's pretty much all wilderness once we pass the source of Emerald Creek, but there are a few wilderness cabins dotted around the hillside. As for their condition…"

"They usually have intact roofs, so at least it won't rain on our heads during the night, but the ground can be a bit rough sometimes," Lumi chimed in. "That's why we packed extra blankets."

"Oh." The eevee wasn't sure what else to say. He shouldn't be too surprised that a multi-day mission required some outdoor camping.

"It also means that we'll get to cuddle in front of a crackling campfire, so that's that," Lily cooed, playfully flicking her tail against Ryan's side. "You'll love it."

The zorua's promise dispelled most of the eevee's worries, and he even found himself looking forward to spending the night in the wilderness, but that was a concern for later because it wasn't even noon yet and they still had the whole way to go. Chester led them at a brisk pace to take full advantage of the fact that they were all fresh and rested. Following a beaten dirt road up the meandering bends and turns of Emerald Creek, the plan was to reach the source by the end of the day, which lay about fifteen miles ahead.

For the first hour, Ryan was still talking with Lily and Lumi about what staying a night out in the wilderness was like. But as the path forward became ever narrower and bumpier, leading up an increasingly steep hill, he eventually stopped talking as he had to fully focus on the ground in front of his paws. Step by step, minutes passed and soon turned into hours, and then even more hours until the sun passed its zenith.

By that point, Ryan trailed Chester's lead by almost two dozen feet. The training missions had definitely paid off because his paws weren't nearly as raw and aching as after his first trip across Whitewater Grove, but he still hadn't developed nearly the same, seemingly limitless stamina as the rest of his team. While the psychic ponyta and zorua were chatting as if they were on a casual stroll, he was panting and heaving, his body hot and his limbs heavy from dragging himself up a hill for several hours. Not to mention his painfully empty, loudly growling stomach.

Luckily, Lumi was walking right next to the eevee, because he wasn't sure if he would've managed to catch up to the others on his own. The snowy vulpix perked his fluffy little ears at the rumbling, and with a grin, he asked, "Getting hungry?"

"Y-yeah, and a short break wouldn't hurt either," Ryan wheezed.

"Hey, Lily, Chester," Lumi yelled ahead. "How about a lunch break?"

"No, not yet," the Galarian ponyta yelled back. "There's a good resting spot coming up in about half a mile. We'll stop there."

"Okay!" the Alolan vulpix responded, waggling his head at the exhausted eevee beside him. "You can do another half mile, right?"

"Yeah, I'll manage," Ryan grunted. "Just why does it have to go uphill the entire time?"

Lumi glanced at Emerald Creek as it thundered down the narrow crevice it had cut into the rock beside them. "Because that's unfortunately how rivers work," he giggled, swishing his six tails around Ryan's backside to give him an extra push. "Don't worry. We've made good progress so far, and once we're at the source, we won't be heading up much further. Just a few more miles."

Ryan gave the Alolan vulpix a tired sigh. "Can you give me one of your energy potions?"

Lumi shook his head with an apologetic smile. "I only have two and they're for emergency use only. For example, when you're so exhausted that you can no longer stand on your feet, and that's not the case at the moment, I hope?"

"N-no, I can still walk, but I'm not sure for how much longer," the eevee mumbled, staring down at the glistening, sweat-soaked fur of his forelegs. At least they weren't shaking too much yet.

The next few minutes until Team Wildwoods reached the promised resting spot were among the longest in Ryan's life… at least in the last two weeks he could remember. Chester's decision proved to be the right call, though, as they ended up at a small, placid lake between the trees and boulders. Its shallow gravel beach was perfect for unfurling a blanket and settling down by the water, and once the eevee dropped onto the fabric, he deflated with a tired but blissful sigh. It wasn't the most comfortable in the world, but a thousand times better than walking, and while Lumi and Chester went foraging for berries, he enjoyed the view across the flat, glittering water surface with Lily lying right beside him.

"How are you doing, Ryan?" the zorua asked softly.

"I'm beat. And hungry. But otherwise fine," Ryan chuckled weakly. "I didn't expect it to be this exhausting, and we've still got a few more days to go!" Despite all the encouragement, he was starting to doubt that he was ready for this trip.

"Yes, the first part is the toughest, especially if you're not used to it, but it's going to get easier soon."

"Heh. Lumi said the exact same thing," the eevee muttered, reaching over the edge of the blanket to fidget with a few pebbles. "What happens if I can't do it?"

"You will. Once we're over this hill, it'll never get this steep again, and we're in no rush. We can take a few more breaks this afternoon for you," Lily said, placing one paw on Ryan's back. "And if all else fails, I'll carry you."

"You'll carry me? You didn't mean that as a joke?"

"Nope, I was serious about that. Maybe Lumi would have to carry you for a bit too, but we'll get you to the Whispering Woods one way or another," she giggled, giving him a nuzzle.

"Ugh, don't nuzzle me. I'm all icky and sweaty," Ryan groaned. That was the only downside of lying down: he was stewing in his own cooling sweat.

"I don't mind, but why don't you take a quick dip while we wait for the others to return?"

The eevee looked at the calm, shallow water in front of him and hesitated to get up even though it was less than two feet away. Ultimately, the need to clean himself won out and he dragged himself into the lake. "Brrrr, this is cold," he gasped, much to Lily's giggly delight. Then he looked down. The water was crystal clear. He could see every rock and stone beneath the surface, and after walking so much, he was overcome with the strong urge to take a sip. Fortunately, the zorua was the only pokemon around to witness as he leaned forward, hovered his muzzle an inch above the water, and tried to drink.

Ryan's first few licks were as aimless and futile as his occasional, embarrassing attempts back at the guild, but at least this wasn't as messy as trying to eat soup or stew. Ironically, the splashing water even cleaned his face and muzzle as he tried to drink, and although Lily couldn't stifle her giggles at his clumsy performance, he kept going. After all, he knew that he had the right instincts. He just needed to understand them like when he had learned to walk.

Fifteen minutes of full concentration, that's how long it took the eevee to disentangle all the different movements his tongue was capable of, but when it finally clicked, it was almost as satisfying as his first deliberate steps. Finally, he managed to flick the clear, cool liquid into his open muzzle without splashing it all over his cheeks. No longer did he have to shove half of his face into the water to drink, and what seemed impossible just a minute ago became effortless, so he drank and drank and drank, even after he was no longer thirsty.

"Oh hey, you did it?!" Lily gasped when she noticed Ryan's accomplishment, and she jumped up, joining him in the water to get a better look. Then she leaned even closer, the big grin on her muzzle growing mischievous before she suddenly smacked a paw onto the water next to his head, splashing him from ear to cheek.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"Sorry, but you were so focused that I just couldn't help myself," the zorua laughed.

"Is that so?" Ryan retorted. A smirk formed on his lips as he wiped the water off his face and turned around. Before she realized what he was up to, he slapped his tail against the water and sprayed her with a whole gush of water. "There! That's for splashing me."

It took exactly one second before the stunned zorua retaliated, sending an even even bigger splash of water the eevee's way. It was still as cold as ever, but he barely noticed it as he paid her back with another burst and a mad giggle.

Lily and Ryan spent the next few minutes chasing each other across the shallow shore until Lumi and Chester returned from their foraging trip.

"I see you've been enjoying yourselves while we were busy foraging," the Galarian ponyta chuckled as he dumped a huge heap of fruit, nuts, and berries from his saddlebags.

Lumi sat down beside Chester, grabbed the closest berry, and bit into it while he watched the eevee and the zorua bouncing around in the water. "And it looks like someone found some more energy to spend after all."

When Ryan spotted the pile of food, his stomach acted up with a particularly painful growl. Hungrier than ever, he stepped out of the lake and quickly shook himself, flinging droplets of water everywhere. Then he stumbled toward the males and the delicious treats they had deposited on the blanket. Not even bothering to use his paws, he shoved his muzzle into the pile and chowed down three berries at once before he sighed with his mouth full, "Ah, perfect. Thanks a lot, guys."

"Also, Ryan finally figured out how to drink water properly," Lily remarked as she followed the eevee.

"What? Really? And I wasn't there to see it?" Lumi gasped.

Poking the snowy vulpix's side, the zorua purred with pursed lips. "That makes us even~"

With that, the two pokemon started arguing over which of Ryan's accomplishments was more important, but the eevee barely listened to any of it as he continued to gorge himself, replacing the water on his face with a sticky, colorful mess of various berry juices. The sugary sweetness was just what his empty stomach and tired brain needed right now, and he kept stuffing himself until he was full to the brim, his belly bulging from the sheer amount of food inside. However, the energy boost from the sugar stood no chance against the inevitable food coma, and when he lay back to take a brief nap, he dropped off within seconds.


When Ryan eventually woke up again, the sun had moved a good chunk further across the sky.

"Wakey-wakey, sleepy head," Lumi greeted him with a giggle.

To Ryan's other side, Lily added, "You know that chesto berries are meant to keep you awake, not knock you out, right?"

"Huh? What?" The eevee groaned, sleepily blinking at the two pokemon while he tried to recall where he was. Lake. Trees. Blanket. Right, the mission…

"Do you think you're ready to move on?" Chester asked, the gravel scrunching under his hooves as he got up.

"Yes. Yes, I think so." Ryan sluggishly followed the other male's example, only to misjudge his balance and tumble back onto the blanket. "Ack! Okay, maybe I need another minute."

"That's perfectly fine," the psychic ponyta nickered. "Take your time. We'll pack up everything in the meantime." He casually pulled the blanket out from under the eevee, folded it up, and stowed it on his back.

Once Ryan was lying in the gravel, he finally got the kick he needed to get up. "Alright. Alright. I'm getting up already," he grumbled, but his mood soon brightened as the refreshing dip, big lunch, and restful nap proved to be exactly what he needed to recover his energy. Although the excitement he had felt this morning didn't fully return, he managed to keep up with the others again as they continued their journey along the now incredibly narrow, rocky trail that ran between Emerald Creek on the left and a steep, towering cliff on the right. Instead, it was Lily's turn to lag a good chunk behind them.

The eevee's mood dimmed again, however, when he noticed a growing tension in Chester's gait. He leaned toward the larger male and whispered, "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine so far, yes. I'm just a little wary because this is a pretty narrow path and the cliff next to us is perfect for ambushes. Especially after blind turns like the one ahead," the Galarian ponyta remarked, pointing a hoof at the upcoming bend. "Someone could just drop a boulder off the cliff up there and we'd be in trouble."

While Chester pointed ahead, the boulder atop the cliff suddenly started moving with a rumble, and a moment later, the ground quaked beneath Ryan's feet as it crashed onto the road in front of them with a deafening thud.

"Shit! Of course, I had to say something… Everybody turn around and run! Now!" the Galarian ponyta yelled.

Chester's command was crystal clear, but the eevee struggled to follow as his mind blanked and he tripped over his own feet, falling flat onto his stomach. He wasn't quite sure what was happening, but it sounded bad.

"Too late. They're behind us! Three pokemon. Zigzagoon. Liepard. Lopunny," Lumi snarled. A gust of freezing air washed around Ryan's paws as the snowy vulpix beside him got ready to fight.

Meanwhile, Lily dashed right past the group of ambushers, sidestepping their crude attempts to catch her.

"Don't bother. One less only makes it easier for us," a loud voice cackled. An umbreon with a notched ear and scruffy black fur jumped onto the boulder in front of Team Wildwoods and sat on it like on a throne, her tail swishing lazily as she spoke with unmistakable disdain. "Look what's strayed into our territory. A Garnet Paws exploration team."

"What do you want?" Chester snorted, his whole body tense as a bowstring and his horned head lowered as he glared at the female.

The umbreon flicked her notched ear and rolled her eyes. "Isn't that obvious? You're using a toll road and we're here to collect the toll," she asserted with a smug grin. Then her glowing red eyes fell onto Ryan, piercing him with a glare that froze the blood in his veins.

Chester sighed. "How much do you want?"

The umbreon didn't reply at first. Still staring at the eevee, her eyes narrowed and her expression suddenly shifted into something else. Something ugly.

"How much?" Chester asked again, impatiently tapping the ground with one steel-shod hoof.

"One eevee," the umbreon responded with the same tone as if she were asking for a pawful of coins or berries. "That eevee there, to be precise~"

Chester and Lumi gasped in unison, but not a single sound escaped Ryan's open muzzle, his heart thudding in his ears as he tried, but failed to process her demand.

"No." The ponyta's voice dripped with a resoluteness that the eevee had never heard from him. "Step aside or I will personally kick you into the creek."

"Ah, no, that unfortunately won't do. What a shame." The dark type clicked her tongue and sighed with feigned disappointment. Then her features hardened and a grimace of darkness burst from her face, careening toward Team Wildwoods to veil them in a thick black mist while she shrieked, "Get that eevee, boys! He mustn't slip away."

Ryan's heart plummeted as the three bandits behind them dashed forward with fierce, blood-curdling cries. The liepard targeted Chester and the zigzagoon targeted Lumi, while the lopunny spread his arms to scoop up the shell-shocked eevee.

"Only over my dead body," Lumi roared. Another gust of icy wind swirled around the Alolan vulpix and with resounding cracks, he conjured up massive ice spikes from the ground around them, their sharp, jagged business ends pointed right at their ambushers to stop them.

Blinded by his boss's own haze, the zigzagoon howled as he ran right into the vulpix's palisades. But while he retreated with his tail tucked between his hindlegs, the lopunny crossed his arms in front of his chest and barreled through the spikes with a defiant grunt.

"Ryan, duck!"

Chester's command snapped the eevee out of his stupor and his fight-or-flight response kicked in full force. A surge of pure adrenaline rushed through his body, and just as the lopunny extended his arms to catch him, he jumped aside, just as he had practiced many times with the ponyta.

Unfortunately, the ambusher turned around much faster than Ryan was used to from Chester. Although he failed to grab him, he managed to swing his arm against the eevee, batting him forward like a ball.

Ryan squealed as he was launched into the air, only for his breath to be knocked out of him when Lumi's ice palisades broke his flight. Luckily he didn't tumble into their spiky ends, but the impact still reduced him to a shaking, incapacitated heap just long enough for the lopunny to snatch him.

"Keep your filthy paws away from him!"

The bandit cried out and dropped the eevee again as Lumi pelted him with a flurry of icicles. Dozens upon dozens of the glistening, icy daggers slammed into his side and knocked him off his balance. Stumbling away from the eevee, the lopunny ended up right behind Chester's rear, and although the Galarian ponyta was busy fending off the liepard's vicious claws and bites to his head, he reflexively kicked out with a fierce snort.

Ryan knew what damage Chester's kick could do, and he grimaced when the stallion's steel-shod hooves impacted the lopunny's waist with a nasty thud, launching him into the air like a rotten piece of driftwood. A second later, a second thud succeeded the first as the male's body slammed against the rocky cliff face, and there was no more movement after he crashed onto the ground, knocked out cold from the kick.

Meanwhile, the Alolan vulpix sent the liepard into retreat with even more icicles, but the success was short-lived as Chester snarled, "Two more ahead. Ekans and a fucking salandit."

"Dammit," Lumi cried as the salandit jumped in front of his ice barrier and melted it with a fur-singing blast of fire, allowing the ekans and the zigzagoon to pincer them from both sides.

"Ryan, jump. Now!" Chester neighed.

Completely overwhelmed by the chaos around him, the eevee could only tell why he was jumping after he jumped, narrowly avoiding the ekans's desperate lunge to ensnare him. The serpent still managed to whip him with the end of his tail, but the smack of pain only got Ryan's blood pumping harder.

At the same time, the liepard returned and the group's boss herself joined the fray, accompanying the zigzagoon in his attempt to subdue the psychic ponyta with a relentless flurry of claws, bites, and bursts of pure darkness. On the other side, Lumi was busy fending off the salandit, struggling to stand his ground against the fire type.

Consequently, Ryan had to deal with the ekans on his own, and he had to employ all his training to dodge the serpent's attacks. His opponent's moves were blisteringly fast and nearly unpredictable, but the eevee's reflexes proved just a smidgen faster, and whenever his attacker went left, he went right. When the ekans went right, he went left. When the ekans lunged forward, he jumped aside… only for a heavy rumbling to disrupt his desperate dance.

A small landslide of dirt and rocks had broken loose from the cliffside, blindsiding the liepard and sweeping him right into the creek while narrowly missing the rest. It was no natural phenomenon, however, as a booming voice roared, "Step away from the Garnet Paws, scoundrels!" A towering mudsdale with a fluttering red scarf appeared on top of the cliff, stomping his hoof onto the ground to trigger another small landslide. "Unless you want me to bury you all under this cliff."

"What the fuck? How did that fucking zorua manage to get backup this fast?" the umbreon howled, only to be caught and shunted aside by the edge of Chester's hoof.

"Ryan! Lumi! Run! Now!" the Galarian ponyta yelled.

"No! Don't let him get away! Two thousand pieces of gold for whoever catches him!" the umbreon shrieked, struggling to drag herself up onto her paws. "Pip! Sven! Mirry! Do something, you idiots!"

Meanwhile, Ryan followed Chester's call in a heartbeat and jumped over the confused ekans to make a run for it. The path ahead was still blocked by the boulder, but with no more bandits on it, he could just vault over it and leave the scene without ever looking behind. Running on pure adrenaline, he kept going and going, on and on, forward and ever forward as fast as his paws would carry him with a single goal in mind: away. Away from the fight. Away from the bandits. Away from his wannabe kidnappers.

The eevee's mad dash lasted for about five minutes before his energy ran out, leaving him with a pounding heart and heaving so much that he tasted blood in his breath. His sprint turned into a jog, then a walk before he finally stopped, his legs shaking like jelly and his head spinning so much he almost passed out. It also marked the first time he looked around, and to his great relief, he saw that Chester, Lumi, and their surprise savior, the mudsdale, were right behind him.

"Fuck, there were more of them than I thought," the Galarian ponyta groaned, his face a pained grimace. "I've never seen that umbreon before. Must be a new gang."

"Luckily, they weren't too coordinated," the mudsdale snorted. "And most of them thick as bricks."

"Yes. They could've really done a number on us if that salandit had attacked us sooner," Lumi admitted. "Though, he wasn't that strong. All in, no reserves. Another two seconds and I would've completely broken that poor guy."

Still reeling and gasping for breath, Ryan stared at the others, especially at their savior. He had seen one mudsdale around the guild before, but it wasn't her. After all, he was male. "Thank you for helping us," he stumbled out once his body allowed. "That was great timing. Did Lily find you? Also, where is she even? Shouldn't she be with you?"

Lumi almost dropped the potion when he suddenly burst into giggles and a big grin appeared on the mudsdale's muzzle. "What do you mean? She's right here."

"What? No, she is…" Ryan's voice faltered when, from one moment to the next, the mudsdale disappeared and a beaming zorua sat in his place. He blinked. He blinked again, and a few more times for good measure in case his eyes were playing tricks on him. "Lily?"

"Surprise!" the zorua chirped.

Now even Chester started nickering as the eevee stood there with his muzzle wide open and eyes as big as plates, so perplexed that he forgot to breathe.

"I wasn't sure if any of them would see through the illusion, but they were too busy fighting to notice," Lily giggled. "That umbreon was actually sooo close to getting it, but she was the only one of them."

"Yes, your distraction worked perfectly," the Galarian ponyta said. "And Ryan?"

"Yes?"

"Good job on the dodging. That ekans was quick, but you were quicker. Well done," Chester praised him. Then his expression darkened. "That said, we should keep moving. Someone has apparently put a hefty bounty on your head, and while I'm not sure why, I have a hunch."

"Seems like the secret wasn't as secret as we thought," Lumi added.

"Not necessarily. Apollo could sense that something was odd about Ryan's aura, so technically any lucario and psychic type we passed could've noticed it too," Lily assessed. "But it doesn't matter how it happened. At least we now know that we need to be extra vigilant."

As the others talked, Ryan's awe at the zorua's illusion turned into deep dread, and the cold shiver that ran down his spine was almost strong enough to knock him off his shaky feet. "Two thousand pieces of gold for me? But why? What do they want from me?"

"I do not know, but I'll make sure they'll never get you," Lily growled, menacing darkness swirling around her head. "Anyway, Chester is right. Let's get going. The more space we get between us and them, the better."

"Yes," Chester replied. "I'll go ahead. Lily, you take the rearguard, and Lumi, you stay with Ryan."

"Will do!" the snowy vulpix chirped, demonstratively twining his tails around Ryan's tail.

However, their plan failed the moment they started moving, as the eevee didn't manage to set a single foot forward. Instead, his trembling legs gave out completely and he flopped onto the ground like an empty waterskin.

"Stop! Ryan's fallen," Lily yelled.

"Sorry for that. Just give me a…" Ryan dragged himself to his feet, but he immediately collapsed again. On his next few attempts, he didn't even manage to get up at all. "I'm sorry. I just can't… I can't…" Exhaustion and dread mixed with frustration to leave him on the verge of tears, but fortunately, he wasn't alone as the others gathered around him.

"It's okay. That was a lot all at once," Lily whispered, gently nuzzling the eevee's side.

Placing one paw on his other, Lumi nodded, "You gave it your all, so it's natural that you're exhausted now."

Glancing at the Alolan vulpix, a strained smile grew on Ryan's lips. "Exhausted enough for one of your energy potions?"

"Oh, yes! Right! Wait, let me get one for you real quick." Lumi nodded and headed toward Chester to fetch a bottle of the swirling golden potion from his saddlebags. He uncorked it and carefully pressed it against the eevee's muzzle, tilting it just enough that he could drink it in small gulps.

Ryan's first sip was so shaky that he spilled half of the honey-colored liquid, but the next was already much steadier as a surge of fresh energy rushed through him. It was like waking up and taking an invigorating bath at the same time. Finally, after emptying the flask, he jumped up and managed to stay on his feet, even if his legs were still shaking slightly. "Wow, this is awesome! Thank you so much, Lumi!"

"You're welcome, Ryan," Lumi giggled, nuzzling his cheek.

With that, Team Wildwoods finally got going again, continuing their hike to the source of Emerald Creek and beyond for as long as the sun was still up. However, there was no more chatter between them as Lily, Lumi, and Chester kept their eyes and full attention on their surroundings. Still closed in by cliffs from both sides, they weren't out of the woods yet, and as Ryan walked his mind filled the silence with questions and worries. Who wanted him? Why did they want him? What would they do if they got him?

Worst of all, whoever had put up the bounty probably knew the answer to the eevee's other questions too, namely who had brought him to Gaia and for what reason.

Whenever Ryan wasn't thinking about the sinister figure behind his attempted abduction, the fight with the bandits played before his mind's eye in unpleasant, visceral detail. The memory alone got his heart racing and left him short of breath, but a gentle caress snapped him out of it before it overwhelmed him.

"It's a lot to process, isn't it?" Lumi whispered, brushing his tails against Ryan's as he came so close that their hips almost touched.

"Mhm," Ryan muttered.

"The first fight is always the hardest. Later fights can be tougher, but nothing stays in your memory as much as the first one," the Alolan vulpix said. "But you did really well! Certainly better than I did on my first fight."

"Your first fight?" Ryan asked, his ears perking up as he looked at the snowy male. "What was it like?"

"Honestly, it wasn't anything special. I was still an apprentice at the time and had joined one of the exploration teams on a routine patrol when we ran into a group of bandits. Four of us, four of them. An even match-up, you'd think." Lumi let out an agonized chuckle. "Guess who surged ahead and got his ass handed to him?"

"O-oh no," Ryan stammered. "Did you get knocked out?"

"No, but almost," Lumi replied, pensively looking at the sky above. "But even if I had gotten knocked out, I had a whole team backing me up, and that's what's the most important thing. When you do missions, you're bound to get into a fight at some point, but as a Garnet Paw, you'll never have to face it alone. You'll always have the skills and experience of others at your side."

The Alolan vulpix's words relieved some of the weight on Ryan's mind. Of course, he knew that he wasn't alone, but having it confirmed by his teammate was perhaps even more restorative than the energy potion, and so were the snowy alchemist's other stories about his previous battles. He and the others of Team Wildwoods had mentioned fights with ruffians and bandits before, but only now that the eevee had experienced real combat did he truly understand what the vulpix told him. Plus, knowing that Lumi had been in the same spot as him before comforted him even more, and at least for the time being, the tales kept him distracted from the fact that there was a huge bounty on his head.

About an hour later, Team Wildwoods reached the source of Emerald Creek, but it proved nothing more than an inconspicuous trickle of water on the wayside. Their real destination lay another mile further, at the very end of the narrow, overgrown trail. They reached it just as the sky veiled itself with thick gray clouds, snuffing out the orange rays of the setting sun.

"There we are. Emerald cabin. The most luxurious lodging around these parts," Chester was first to announce, and although he pointed his hoof forward, Ryan had to look several times before he spotted their shelter nestled in a rocky recess. Dark, weathered logs embraced the entrance, and beyond the crude door waited a round chamber with a low roof, a floor of packed dirt, and roughly hewn stone walls, the air slightly stale with the lingering smell of resin and its previous occupants. But the primitive first look was deceiving as it featured an elaborate, well-crafted brick fireplace with a black steel door and narrow holes in the walls for proper airflow. A flat, spread-out heap of dried grass in the corner served as a sleeping spot, a neat, tidy stack of dry firewood in another corner provided fuel for the fire, and there was a wooden ladder in the back that led to a hole in the ceiling.

"Where does that lead?" Ryan wondered, pointing at the latter.

"That's the emergency exit, in case you can't get out of the door for some reason," Lumi explained while he helped Chester unload his saddlebags. Then he grabbed the blankets and dragged them toward the makeshift straw mattress. "Alright, Ryan and I are going to take care of the bed and fireplace."

"Good. I'll head out with Chester to fetch some food and fresh firewood," Lily agreed, giving the Galarian ponyta a playful swat with her tail before they turned around and headed out to forage.

"Why firewood? There's an entire pile already here," Ryan asked.

"Yes, but it's good manners to gather new firewood with every stay, so there's always enough dry firewood for the next visitors," Lumi replied while he draped one of the blankets over the straw and pushed it down with his forepaws. "Also, mind getting some logs while I prepare our bed?"

"Of course!" The eevee nodded and headed to the pile to grab a few logs, or at least attempt to. He had had a few weeks to grow accustomed to his paws so far, but most of that process had involved learning about all the things he couldn't easily do with them, like carrying anything. In contrast, his muzzle proved much more useful as he chomped down on a piece with the base of a branch protruding and dragged it across the cabin.

"Did they nick the carrying sling again?"

"The what?" Ryan dropped the piece of wood, the taste of resin on his lips as he stared at the snowy vulpix. Then he looked back at the log pile. Upon repeat inspection, he spotted a stone wedge and an assortment of strings and fabric beside it, and when he unfolded the latter, it turned out to be the sling Lumi mentioned. "Oh, no. I just… I forgot to check." Blushing into the tips of his ears, the eevee pulled a few more logs onto the patch of textile, wrapped them up, and grabbed the loose, slightly frayed loops of string with his muzzle to carry the whole bunch over to the fireplace.

As Ryan dropped the wood, he briefly wondered how many others had been chewing on the strings in his muzzle, and he immediately spat them out with a disgusted choke. Another thing he wasn't sure if he would ever get used to. Luckily, most items and bags he had to carry belonged to Team Wildwoods, and that rope had been lying there for a while, so it should be fine, right?

"Are you okay there?" Lumi giggled, grinning at the eevee while he walked back and forth on the blanket, stomping down and flattening all bumps and irregularities.

Ryan stared at the strings for another moment. Then he nodded. "Yeah, I'll manage."

"Good. Mind looking for the flint and tinder? It should be in one of the saddlebags."

With another nod, the eevee headed toward the bags and started digging until he found the shiny black stone and a bundle of oil-soaked paper, grass, and tinder as a firestarter. After placing the tools on top of the log pile, he opened the fireplace door, but he left it up to the ice type to stack the logs inside the fireplace.

"Maybe you'll evolve into a flareon someday?" Lumi joked as he started to bash the flint against a protruding screw in the door, trying to coax a spark out of it.

"Perhaps, but probably not," Ryan muttered, absently staring at the other male's efforts. A warm, crackling fire sounded nice and comfy, but nothing more. He wasn't nearly as fascinated by it as what Gwen had told him about her brother.

"Jolteon would work too. Or espeon. Just anything other than an ice type," the snowy vulpix giggled. It took a few attempts, and after the first spark missed its target, the second managed to light the oily tinder on fire. He hastily shoved it deeper into the logs. Then he bounced back. "Okay, there we go. Done."

Now it was time to wait for the others to return, and when Ryan climbed onto the blanket, making himself comfortable on the surprisingly comfy bedding, his thoughts caught up with him. No more walking, no more tasks, and no more tales to distract him from the nasty reality that someone was out to get him.

"Thinking about the bandits again?" Lumi asked gently. Dropping beside the eevee, he wrapped three tails around his back and cuddled up against him.

Ryan swallowed. "No. It's about why they wanted me."

"I see," the vulpix whispered, nuzzling the eevee's cheek. "Honestly, I'm just as eager to find out, and then give them an ass-whooping."

Ryan let out a choked chuckle. "I mean, I'll probably find out if they succeed."

"They won't," Lumi stated with unconditional confidence. "They'll have to get past us and deal with all of the Garnet Paws first, so there's no way they'll get you."

"I hope so."

"Don't worry. We're behind you every step of the way, Ryan, and I'm going to freeze anyone who tries anything funny with you."

Ryan looked at the Alolan vulpix, a shaky smile on his muzzle. "Thank you, Lumi."

"You're welcome," Lumi cooed. Then he pointed a paw at the wall, where a battered, scratched plank of wood rimmed the straw bed. "You know what those markings mean?"

"It's one for each visitor?" the eevee suggested as he recognized a crude pattern in the claw marks.

Lumi's grin widened. "You're pretty close. It's actually a list of how many of them had sex in this very bed," he explained, tracing the last few lines with a claw. "That way, you know when it's time to toss out the old straw and get some new."

"Oh." Ryan's ears folded back in embarrassment as he looked at the board once more. There were so many marks, more than he wanted to count and more than he expected for some shack in the hinterlands, perhaps two hundred in total. If it was already that much here, he struggled to imagine the activity the beds in the Sunken Pearl in Minty Meadows were seeing…

"I don't think we need to change the straw yet, though. It's only been two groups since the last change," the Alolan vulpix assessed, nudging Ryan with his snout. "Want to add another mark?"

The eevee shivered at the initial remark, and he shivered even harder at the suggestion, especially as his companion shifted closer and raised one hindleg to rub his sheath against his thigh. Part of Ryan hesitated, still hung up on the ambush. However, Lumi's eagerness soon rubbed off on him as he showered him with licks and nuzzles, dispelling his lingering dread for the moment. "Yes," he whispered. "But maybe nothing too wild?"

"Of course," Lumi giggled, licking Ryan across the muzzle before he hooked one paw under the eevee's chest and gently guided him onto his side. Once their bellies faced each other, he shifted even closer until their sheaths touched, the sliver of pink poking from Ryan's sheath pressing against his petite, already half-erect taper and the eevee's huge, furry nuts fully enveloping his snug sack. Hugging the other male tightly and interlocking two tails with his, he then started to slowly and casually hump against him. "Cuddling it is."

The eevee sighed softly. A comforting rush of warmth washed through him as he wrapped his paws around the fluffy white vulpix and lazily humped back. "Yes, this is perfect." All his remaining burdens and worries from the day melted away like snow in the summer heat as he embraced the gentle, tingly rush of stimulation with another breathy moan.

Then, Lumi nudged Ryan's snout, licked his lips, and invited him into a deep kiss, locking muzzles and intertwining tongues in a hot, wet dance. Their slippery smacks were joined by an unmistakable shlicking as their stiffening cocks glided against each other in a shining layer of sweat and pre, and before long, the eevee's huge, fattening rod was soaking both of their bellies with his sticky scent as he lost himself in the slow, lewd rhythm.

Ryan could've spent the rest of time like that, making out and frotting with the enchanting Alolan vulpix, but not even a minute later, the cabin's door opened with a loud creak and thud. "Hey, Ryan, Lumi, we're back!" Lily announced, only to squeal with delight when she spotted the two entangled males on the bed. "Oh, Chester, look!"

"Looks like someone couldn't wait," Chester chuckled and closed the door behind them, a big bundle of branches and a pouch bulging with berries on his back.

"We were all done and Ryan was in the mood for cuddles, so what can you do?" Lumi giggled. Breaking away from the eevee, he rolled onto his back and showed off his soft, fluffy underbelly and his twitching, dripping taper. "Anyway, why don't you drop your stuff and come join us?"

"Ryan is right. Cuddles sound like a wonderful idea," the Galarian ponyta nickered and deposited the wood and berries on his back beside the stack in the corner. Then he ambled toward the two males on the straw bed. With a thump, he lay down next to them, sprawling himself on his side with all fours stretched out and his sparkling, cottony mane and tail draped across half of the blanket. Tapping one hoof on the bed, he cooed, "Come here, you two~"

Unlike Ryan, Chester wasn't hard yet, but the fat sliver of pink peeking from his sheath was no less tantalizing, and the eevee found himself at the perfect angle to view his full set, including his huge, leathery balls and his puffy, sweaty tailhole. Even more intriguing than the sight was that the day of walking and exertion had veiled the psychic stallion in a thick, muzzle-watering musk that drew Ryan in like a mothim to the moonlight. He wasn't alone in this either, as Lumi leered at his teammate's bits with his nose twitching and drool spilling from his lips.

The eevee and the Alolan vulpix looked at each other for a heartbeat. Lumi's muzzle twisted into a naughty grin while Ryan shivered with surging arousal, their tails swishing in eager unison. At the other male's nod, the eevee lunged forward to claim his part of the lounging stud, cuddling against Chester's hindlegs from behind and shoving his muzzle into the crease between his plump, swollen breeding orbs. He sampled a deep breath of the stallion's scent, only to shake even harder as the powerful musk blurred his vision and made his head spin. With a breathy moan, he then darted out his tongue and treated that divine sack to a wide, sloppy lick, mixing his saliva with the ponyta's salty sweat.

"Oh yes, that's perfect. Good boys," the Galarian ponyta nickered. "Work those greedy tongues~"

There was something special about Chester's aroma that made Ryan flare up with arousal. His musk was richer and more addictive than Lumi's or Lily's scent, and since their first sparring, he had come to appreciate it even more than his other two subby teammates. Slowly dragging his nose up to the Galarian ponyta's perineum, he inhaled even more of the stud's musk with deep, noisy breaths while hugging his balls against his chest and worshiping everything in his muzzle's reach with wet slurps and kisses. All the while, his partner's deliciously puffy, sweat-shining pucker was just above his face, gently twitching as it waited its turn.

Chester's plump hole suddenly contracted hard and a horny neigh burst from his muzzle when the zorua joined forces with the vulpix.

"Don't forget about me, big boy~" Lily warbled. With Lumi in front of the ponyta's hindlegs and her nestling upside-down against his belly, they both pressed their muzzles against his shaft, smooching, sniffing, and lapping at his flat, swollen cock head, at the base where it glided out of its thick, leathery sheath, and everything in between to make him snort and shiver with growing delight.

The next time Chester's pucker teasingly winked at Ryan, he could no longer resist its call. He slipped his head underneath the psychic ponyta's glittering tail and hugged his fluffy, musclebound buttocks with both forelegs while his own achingly erect, drooling taper slotted perfectly into the cleft between the larger male's balls and thighs. Too horny to control himself, the eevee instinctively thrust his hips forward and began to sluggishly hump against Chester's sack while his whole mind and attention zeroed in on the puffy, puckered pink hole in front of him.

As with the stallion's balls, Ryan shoved his snout against his fat asshole and took a deep breath, flooding his nose and lungs with an even rawer, sweatier variant of his addictive musk. It was so intense that he burst into a needy whine, almost choking on his own drool before he put his spit to better use. He planted a fat, sloppy kiss onto that clenching orifice, allowing his saliva to wash over Chester's butthole before proceeding with a wide, circling lick around its outer rim. Then another closer to the center before he dragged his taster across it in an X, smothering his taste buds with a full helping of the bigger male's delicious, earthy flavors.

"Ah, this is so good," the Galarian ponyta neighed with delight. The eevee couldn't tell whether it was from him spit-washing his ring, from Lumi sucking on his sheath, or from Lily teasingly tonguing his urethra, but it hardly mattered as it was primarily his cue to go deeper. He swirled his tongue around the larger male's clenching ring one more time before he plunged it inside, gliding it deeper and deeper until his lips went flush with his puffy pucker.

The sheer rush of aroma briefly stunned Ryan. A shaky groan drooled from his muzzle as he clenched all four paws around Chester's thighs and backside. Then he went to work, curling and twisting his taster inside his partner's tight ass and spelunking for his pleasure button to elicit more of those delicious neighs and whinnies from him. It took all but five seconds until he found his target, and he immediately started thrusting with his hips and tongue, slamming the tip of his slippery muscle against that most sensitive spot inside the stallion's butt while gliding his taper against his balls, slathering his silky fur and insides with spit and pre.

"Oooooaah, our little musk slut is going all in again," Chester groaned, much to Lumi's and Lily's giggly delight.

"Must be heaven to get worshiped by all three of us, right?" Lumi cooed.

"Also, how about you put your noisy muzzle to better use and get a taste of this?" Lily added. While Ryan couldn't see what she was offering, he heard it all the more. Wet slurps and squelches filled his ears as the Galarian ponyta unleashed all his pent-up arousal on the zorua's spade, licking and sucking on her fat sex with the same ardor that the eevee devoted to his butthole, and as if his snorts and her blissful squeals weren't thrilling enough, Lumi gave Ryan's tapered tip a few sneaky licks every time he thrust it through Chester's thighs.

Ryan could've kept going forever like this, humping the ponyta's thighs and making out with his ring. Worshiping him together with Lily and Lumi until the sheer onslaught of stimulation turned the fledgling tingle in his loins into an explosive orgasm, but Chester had a different plan in mind.

"Ryan, since you've proven yourself in your first real fight, how about a little treat?" the Galarian ponyta purred.

Ryan's ears perked up and he broke away from his making-out session with Chester's ring. A strand of spit and juices dangled between his lips and the ponyta's asshole as he looked at him with big, curious eyes. "A treat?" What better treat could there even be than what he was already enjoying?

Chester brushed his fluffy tail across the eevee's chin. "How do you feel about mounting and knotting a big, strong stud?"

The zorua and the Alolan vulpix pulled away from the stallion's cock, gasping in unison as they looked at him and Ryan.

The eevee's jaw dropped and his tail stopped wagging, stiffening and trembling with surprise. He kept staring at Chester, trying to tell whether the other male was being serious. Always dominant, always on top, he had never seen him take anything beyond a tongue up his butt. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Just this once. My special reward for you tonight," the Galarian ponyta nickered and licked his lips, waggling his rump at him. "Besides, I want to know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of that fat, juicy schlong." He teasingly squeezed his thighs around Ryan's taper. "There has to be a reason why these two here always lose their horny minds when you shove it inside them. So how about it? Ready to become the third male ever to mount me?"

On cue, Lumi winked at Ryan.

Obviously, the eevee couldn't turn down the opportunity to join such an exclusive circle, and besides, he was burning to know what that plump, puffy ring felt like wrapped around his knot. "Oh yes, I'd love to!" he gasped and released Chester's butt from his hug to get up. His legs were quaking with excitement, so he needed a few attempts to stay on his paws, but once he was standing, he quickly jumped onto the ponyta, mounting him like Lily, Lumi, and the others before him. He even took a moment to properly align his leaking tip with that wonderfully plump ring, gently gliding it against the tight, twitching center with a smack.

"Good boy," the Galarian stud purred, brushing his glittering tail around the eevee's head. "Now get to it and don't you dare hold back, Ryan. Give me all you got." He turned his head toward him, his dark blue, starry eyes twinkling with lust. "Fuck me!"

Even as a bottom, Chester lost nothing of his natural dominance, and the eevee complied with his order in a heartbeat. He thrust his hips forward and glided his taper into the psychic ponyta's ass, spreading his plump ring and his wonderfully warm, wet insides with the first three inches. Just deep enough to hit his partner's prostate, his plunge was rewarded by a powerful clench and a boisterous neigh, which encouraged him to push even deeper. Wrapping one paw around the bigger male's flank and burying the other deep inside his cottony tail, Ryan managed to sink another three inches inside him before he pulled back and started to loosen the stallion's deeper depths with eager thrusts.

"Oh, your ass feels so good. So tight. So soft," the eevee sputtered out between moans, wetter and noisier slurps accompanying his every hump as Chester's clenching ass squeezed the pre out of his cock. Not to mention the delicious groans and smacks coming from Lily and Lumi as the Alolan vulpix hugged her from behind and shoved his petite pecker into her fat spade in a horny frenzy. However, the two never forgot about the Galarian ponyta's cock, slurping and servicing their teammate's huge, throbbing horse cock with unwavering devotion while they helped each other with their overwhelming arousal.

The sight and sound of the mating couple riled the eevee up even more. While he couldn't reach far enough to join them in worshiping the stallion's veiny shaft, he licked and huffed Chester's sweaty side with all the more enthusiasm. All the while, his hips turned into a blur, resounding claps joining his throaty serenade of bliss as his swinging nuts slapped against his partner's musclebound thigh.

"There we go. So nice and big, so noisy and needy," the Galarian ponyta nickered, playfully wrapping his tail around the smaller male. "Keep going and don't stop until you've buried that fat, delicious knot of yours inside me."

Chester's voice was shaking a little and his starry eyes sparkled with pure lust, but although Ryan was rutting him in a feral frenzy, he never lost his composure. Lily had yielded to her lust, Lumi had succumbed to his arousal, Millie and Gwen had given in to his fervor, but not the psychic stallion. No, he cherished the wild pounding with the same casual delight as a lavish meal or a thorough massage, groaning softly while goading the eevee on even more. "Good boy. Let it all out~ And you two, open wide. I'm about to give you a little treat."

A powerful ripple raced through the ponyta and he erupted with a thundering neigh. His huge, swollen balls clenched up and his massive shaft flexed in Lily's embrace as he splattered the first thick, sticky rope of cum across her underside and the blanket underneath them, marking her, the bed, and the entire cabin as his domain for the night. Meanwhile, the sudden contractions of his ass hit Ryan with the might of a galloping mudsdale. Already careening toward the edge, he stood no chance against the intense massage, and within the next three thrusts, his knot slipped out of his sheath. "Fuck! I'm also getting close!"

"Knot me!" Chester commanded.

Not that the eevee needed encouragement. So close to his climax, burying his swollen, sensitive bulb inside that clenching hole was the only thought left on his mind, his only remaining purpose as he slammed his taper into Chester and pushed his knot against the puffy ring with gritted teeth and desperate whines. Again and again. Harder and harder until, finally, it went inside and ended his frantic rutting with a resounding, satisfying pop.

"Oooh, your knot is bigger than I expected," the psychic male burst out. His eyes rolled back into his head as his composure finally cracked, and he launched a spurt of seed all across the bed and against the fireplace's brick chimney, painting it with gooey, glistening white.

Ryan responded with a guttural cry of bliss as his brain melted down under the perfect onslaught of stimulation. His balls started to dance as violently as Chester's breeding orbs, churning up a torrential load for the bigger male. Spurt after spurt, he flooded his guts with hot seed, squirt after squirt, he reduced the proud stud to a moaning, shaking heap of pleasure. Not that things were any different for him as not a single straight thought remained in the roiling storm of ecstasy in his head.

The eevee spent the next minute tightly hugged against Chester's hot, sweaty ass, licking and drooling on his fur with one hindpaw braced against the ponyta's clenching sack while his asshole sucked him dry with insatiable contractions. To him, it felt like an eternity of perfection. Perfection that became even more perfect when Lumi followed his example and tied Lily, leaving her squealing in bliss while she got painted from the inside and out. An evening as many before with them, yet unique and exhilarating in a way that Ryan couldn't get enough of, that left him hungry for more even while he was already tied and busy cumming.

"Wow, I know you're productive, Ryan, but this is getting ridiculous. It's so much! No wonder you leave everyone looking pregnant after you're done with them," Chester nickered, one hoof folded against his belly as his own prodigious eruption drew to a close. Swiveling his head toward the eevee, he pursed his lips and fluttered his eyelashes at him. "I can't wait to see how much more you're going to pump inside me."

Ryan nodded with a blissed-out whimper, but his initial high started fading once Chester's climax ceased and his asshole stopped clenching. It didn't fade completely, though. As long as he was still tied, he remained a shaking, sweaty pile of orgasmic bliss on top of the larger male's side, still spurting away. "Your ass feels so good. I could do this every day."

"We'll see about that," the Galarian ponyta chuckled, wrapping his tail even more tightly around the eevee.

Before Ryan could think too much about Chester's response, Lumi chimed in with a cheeky grin, "Better than my ass?"

"I- I don't know. And I honestly don't care," Ryan moaned, absently kissing the psychic's fur. "Your ass, Chester's ass, Lily's ass, it's all amazing, I could never choose." He sighed with a dreamy smile, fantasizing as much about the zorua's tight spade as about the snowy vulpix's tailhole. Then his gaze fell on the ponyta's huge, veiny fuck meat, soaked with spit and still drooling with leftover cum as it lay in a whole sticky puddle. The stallion's eruption had left Lily completely drenched, himself and Lumi covered in stray splatters, and the blanket and bedding were thoroughly imbued with his smell, no matter how thoroughly they cleaned up afterward. What would it be like to have all this inside him? An electrifying thrill washed through the eevee, making his cock pulse and squirt with reinvigorated energy.

"Oooh, what are you thinking about?" Chester snorted in surprise.

"I think I know exactly what's going on in that fluffy head of his right now," Lumi cooed with a naughty grin, demonstratively dragging his tongue across the Galarian ponyta's swollen shaft.

"Y-you know what? If I really had to choose, I would want to take you instead," Ryan admitted with a burning blush on his cheeks.

"Ah, I see," Chester nickered and winked at the eevee. "Don't worry. Just a bit more practice, and you're ready for me to claim that tight, little tailhole of yours, making you squeal like a needy little bitch in heat."

"So just like Lumi?" Lily giggled.

"Hey!" the Alolan vulpix protested with a fake pout.

"Come on. Like you're not the biggest slut of the three of you," Chester remarked with a smirk. "Anyway, how about you two get to cleaning while our lucky boy here is enjoying his tie~?"

And how Ryan was enjoying it! Even if he would've loved to join the vulpix and zorua as they showered the Galarian ponyta's softening, retracting member with licks and affection. Instead, he was left drooling and moaning as the gentle contractions of Chester's hole softened the blow as a whole day of walking caught up with him. But his mounting exhaustion couldn't wipe the smile off his muzzle. At least for now, he was too blissed-out to think about the assault and all its implications or about the days of journey still ahead of him.

That was something for future Ryan to worry about.", "pools_count": 2, "title": "The Garnet Paws - Into the Wilderness", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/rtf", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" }, { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "12", "views": "268" }