Brevity
By: Rufus Quintin

Ever-changing reflections of distorted sunlight shone upon the course surface of a mauve stucco wall veiled in tendrils of flowering vine. Scintillating imitations of the water’s surface cast in bright white gently transformed over the green leaves, white blossoms, and scales of a large motionless lizard that gazed through obscure eyes at the dozing canine lying supine on a sun-bleached towel. Rays of afternoon light struck through the dense leaves of varied subtropical foliage. Tall cypress and palmettos swayed with the languid rush of wind. Senescent plumeria and hibiscus laden with elaborately variegated flowers surrounded a placid pool centered amidst the diverse greenery. Water trickled from a nearby fountain, a Pomona or perhaps Galatea, favored daughter of Nereus, emptying her inexhaustible amphora in a crescent reservoir. Neither silent nor still nature serenely protested the loss of each passing moment, perceptible only to discerning senses, mournful in the midst of splendor. 

A cohort of diminutive hummingbirds patronized the plentiful flowers before disappearing beneath broad philodendron leaves and between palm fronds in a frenetic buzz. The yellow sunlight illuminated their iridescent feathers in fleeting flashes of metallic green. A large monarch fluttered capriciously over 
a hedge of flowering bougainvillea and wafted across the broad courtyard carried aloft by a soft warm southern breeze. Foliage swayed in animate movement. The warm wind disturbed several paper-like magenta bougainvillea blossoms and cast them onto the water’s surface and onto the short white fur of the sleeping canine’s back, who took no notice of the delicate lightness that came to adorn him. 

The sound of approaching footsteps began to distinguish itself amidst the rush of wind and trickle of water. The soft pad of bare foot-paw on stone signaled the return of the otter, who strode with careful, measured steps, carrying a tray laden with tall bottles of beer and chilled glasses frosted in condensation. The clink of trembling glass sounded as if from a distance. The otter ducked to avoid low hanging branches of verdant palm and fern as he approached the edge of the pool and the dormant canine who appeared undisturbed by the approach of his companion. 

The otter stepped out of the shade cast by the ample foliage and into the sunbathed clearing surrounding the pool. The lizard silently observing the canine suddenly scurried in a rustle of leaves. The otter wordlessly placed the tray on a nearby poolside table with an acute rattle of glass. The otter approached the sleeping dog and stared at him through the dark round lenses of his sunglasses. The steady breeze caught the ankles of his white swimming trunks and the fabric of his equally white short-sleeve cotton button-down shirt which bellowed to reveal the brown fur of his bare chest and belly. “Next time,” said the otter, “it’s your turn to get more beer.” 

The canine lay there, silent and motionless; the sunglasses he wore obscured the ability to determine his consciousness. For a moment the otter doubted he was awake until a smile crept across the canine’s 
brown speckled muzzle. The otter did not appear amused. His long whiskers stood still as he gazed down at the canine at his feet with phlegmatic indifference. The canine on the other hand lay stretched out on his back smiling back in his most insouciant repose. “Thanks sweetie!” he said with a melodic intonation. 
The otter huffed and turned, placing a bottle of beer and chilled glass near the dogs head with a clink and rattle. Water droplets had begun to form on the glass and slide down the side forming a ring of moisture on the concrete beneath it. The otter decanted a bottle of the cloudy amber liquid into the second glass and took a seat on a whitewashed wooden deckchair beside the canine who lay on the ground beside it. The canine rolled over onto his belly disturbing the bougainvillea blossoms which crinkled beneath his weight. He torpidly extended a paw and lifted the bottle, pouring it irreverently into the upright glass. The liquid foamed and produced more head than anything else. 

“We only have two bottles of heff left,” said the otter. 

“What about the Belgian witt?” asked the canine in reply. 

“I didn’t see any.” 

“It’s there. Trust me.” 

“I looked for it, but couldn’t find any.” 

“You have to have faith,” assured the canine. 

“Maybe you drank it all and forgot.” 

“Anything’s possible,” uttered the canine and fell silent for several moments. A hummingbird flew by, buzzing with audible palpitations of its wings. An orange dragonfly caught the otter’s attention as it hovered over the water and darted off to land on a nearby bird of paradise. 

“We still have plenty of ale’s left. There is still a case in the fridge and an unopened one downstairs. That should last you until tonight,” said the otter. 

“Hey now. I don’t want to get that drunk just yet.” 

“Why not?” asked the otter. 

“No reason in particular,” said the canine, altering his sunglasses to peer up at his companion over the rim with a suggestive glance. 

The otter threw a cursory glance down at his companion but remained unemotive. “So long as you get the next set of beers,” he said, “I’ll be happy.” 

“Fine,” said the canine with insincere indignation, “be that way.” 

“Love you Tobias,” said the otter in the same saccharine melodic tone his companion had used earlier, allowing his lips to take the form of a subtle smile. 

“Love you too, Ivan,” said Tobias as he extended his finger and reached up to slowly poke Ivan’s elbow. 
The otter slid his paw off the deckchair’s armrest, flexed his fingers in his companions general direction as a halfhearted wave. He took a sip from his beer and closed his eyes allowing his senses to be filled with the floral and fruity taste of hefeweizen. Sunlight cast down on him and enveloped his body, striking him with the unmistakable heat of the summer. While the dense sub-tropical vegetation cast shade and cooled the vicinity, it also captured the humidity rendering the air moist and laden with the diverse bouquet of myriad floral aromas. The otter felt encapsulated in an unmistakable blanket of scent and heavy air. It was at once pleasant and strange. The canine seemed to be relaxed and at home in what was his own backyard, his native earth. 

The otter shut his eyes and felt his body progressively ensconced in heavy pregnant air. Sunlight rained down upon his sleek brown-furred body and crept through the skin of his eyelids, exposing his retinas to the dully reddish of permeating light. The dull murmur of ambient sound echoed as if distant. The trickle of water, the rush of wind through leaves and the remote call of a magpie was heard and disregarded. Perhaps the otter was at peace as he gazed at the maroon canvas of the reverse side of his eyelids, or perhaps he was pensive. 

It’s home territory, he thought, or perhaps the climate. Is it an exact moment around four P.M. when the daily temperature spikes and through some fluke of barometric pressure or a precise balance of relative humidity and altitude. Perhaps it’s a collage of scents or an exact mixture of gaseous chemicals with which one equates balance, perhaps none of the above. In all likelihood it’s something unnamable and discrete. It’s a secret not worth invoking or exposing to speculation of a biased mind. 
“It’s hot,” said the otter. 

Tobias groaned softly as he basked on the ground nearby, he did little else in acknowledging the otter’s statement and fell silent and motionless for several long moments before the urge to sip another sip from his beer, the head of which had finally settled. A small blue dragonfly soon landed unnoticed on the rim and extended its proboscis to imbibe a miniscule amount of the potent moisture and departed, perhaps with an iota of nearly imperceptible blithe in its rapid ascent out of sight. 

“What day is it?” asked the otter, apparently unsatisfied by his companion’s lassitude. 

“Tuesday, I think,” speculated Tobias in laggard voice, following a half-moment pause of uncertainty. 

“Tuesday the what’th?” 

“Donno.” 

“It’s August right?” 

“Yea.” 

Ivan took another sip from his beer, a long deep drink that halved the remaining liquid within his glass. He opened his eyes and shaded them from the sunlight with his paw. He looked through the amber lenses of his sunglasses at the blue, or rather sepia filtered sky, crowned with palm fronds, the tips of cypress, and fragrant branches of a sole pepper tree rising from behind the opposite wall. He looked at his glass and sighed, seeing the paltry remainder of his beverage slosh and foam in the bottom quadrant of his glass. He thought of it as a metaphor, or perhaps an analogy, or even a simile? He looked at the placid pool before him. The water rippled gently, reflecting ever-changing crescents of half-obscured sunlight upon his chest and face. He realized he had become bathed in the reflective pattern that had hit the wall moments earlier. The sun had shifted position and so too the reflection. Time had passed. 
Several leaves appeared to have fallen into the pool, creating a small armada of debris that waged for peaceful supremacy on the undulating surface, which to scale would have accounted as a storm of colossal proportion. The otter took it upon himself to stand up and retrieve the pool skimmer with which he fished each leaf and floating bougainvillea blossom out of the water. 

“Hey Tobias, check this out!” the otter called as he completed his self-appointed task. A small diminutive lizard clung to the inside wall of the pool, just above the water-line. At first the canine didn’t budge, as usual. Ivan called again, “I found a lizard,” before Tobias begrudgingly propped himself up on his elbow. “It’s a tiny little lizard.” 

Tobias stood up and walked on weakened legs around the crescent shape of the pool and huddled next to Ivan who squat next to the rim to point out the little creature. “You better give him a hand,” said the canine. 

Wordlessly the otter offered the lizard a ride on the edge of the skimmer, but it took some effort to bring him on board. Ivan brought the skimmer closer to take a look at the water logged creature, apparently alive and well within the net. “What do you want to do with it?” asked Tobias. 
“Let it go,” said Ivan. 

The otter placed the pool skimmer on the side of the pool and took several steps back. The small creature quickly scurried off beneath a hibiscus plant. Tobias wandered back to his towel and left the otter standing there watching the spot where the creature disappeared. The canine fell prone on his towel and resumed his dozing. Ivan took a small walk around the periphery of the pool. An inexpressible sense of unrest followed him, ebbing at the tendrils of his subconscious, refusing to take shape or allow words to describe it. He took off his sunglasses and placed them in his lapel pocket before slipping out of his white shirt which he hung on a broken crepe myrtle branch. With a slow upward gaze he noticed for the first time that the spindly tree had long since erupted in vibrant bloom, magenta blossoms that swayed on brittle twigs and rained downwind like discarded snippets of tissue from a childhood project in his early youth, upon the hardened dust of earth. He stood before the deep end of the pool, observed the area around him and tossed a glance at his dozing friend before he allowed himself to fall more than jump in the body of water before him. 

The shock of cool water jolted his body. The transition to temperate chill felt far too sudden and intense to be entirely comfortable and he regretted not slowly easing himself in, but glad to once again return to his natural element. Tiny air bubbles surrounded him and raced to the surface. His body hovered as if weightless, limbs and tail became relieved of the burden of gravity. As the shock dissipated. as it did quickly with otters, he felt joy, relieved, and at home. His fingers and toes spread out and with a great stroke, the membrane between his digits caught the water and heaved it as he pulled himself forward, slipping through the water with intuitive ease. 

It took an order of seconds for him to cross the pool. He only resurfaced when he tagged the far wall, bringing his head up out of the water near Tobias. “Hey there,” said the canine who turned his head to face his mate. The otter’s fur quickly repelled the water which pearled and trickled down his neck nearly as soon as he resurfaced. Still some droplets clung to him and shone with reflected light. Ivan merely smiled in return. “What are you doing,” continued Tobias. Ivan merely splashed his mate with water who protested indignantly, but the otter had already disappeared beneath the surface once again. The brown shape of the otter’s body darted back to the far end of the pool and back, then around in a long circle. Ivan’s head popped up in the very center of the pool, then dunked back in and appeared at the far end, until finally back near his mate. 

“That wasn’t very nice, Ivan,” said Tobias, “the water’s cold.” 

“You’ll get used to it,” assured the otter playfully and splashed Tobias again, “I’m helping.” 

Tobias growled tauntingly, but the otter had just as rapidly disappeared. The canine dipped his paw in the water and as Ivan resurfaced he attempted to retaliate in kind, falling short of his target. Ivan however managed to wet his target from the dead center of the pool. The pooch recoiled as droplets of cool water rained down on his bare back. Tobias begrudgingly got up and dipped his foot-paws in the water, sitting upright for more leverage. He watched the brown shape of his mate circle around beneath the distorted surface of the water, waiting for his chance. The canine, now awake and alert, calculated the exact spot where his companion ought to arise from the deep and proved himself correct. With a swipe of his paw, he sent an arc of water that caught the otter square between the ears. The otter sank in defeat. 

The canine eased himself into the pool until waist deep in the shallow end. With his paws outstretched, held just under the water’s surface, Ivan carefully treaded out into the middle of the shallow area. The subtle ripple of his wake tailed behind him as with each step he immersed himself in the stark change of cooling water. The buoyant qualities of submersion lightened his limbs and lifted his fur, tussling it in all directions as if a community of living tassels striving for the same and the disparate clung to his body. The sensation of water creeping through fur via capillary action, soaking tender flesh beneath felt at once welcome and implacably odd, familiar yet uncanny despite many hours of many days spent idly in and out of water. He knew he would miss it, that he might even forget it. He feared that present sensations would once vanish, become memory, or through the recurrent process of recollection, a fantasy. 

The brown shape of the otter began to orbit the half-submerged canine in tiny ellipses. Ivan swiftly gild through water that passed around his streamlined shape as nature had intended it to do. He turned and rotated with practiced ease making a game of motions so natural each flourish was to be beheld as a thing of beauty, vanished with the next slight flick of sinew. Without drawing for air the distorted brown otter-shape circled his companion, drawing nearer with each pass. Fur brushed with fur in an intentional collision that nearly threw the canine off balance. 

In the sudden moment of ensuing instability and the canines increasing vexation, the otter paused and appeared motionless behind Tobias, gracefully immersed in the shallow water waiting in attentive anticipation. Ivan extended his webbed paw and with delicate care pinched the fabric right beneath the canine’s tail, giving it a swift tug which caused the dog to falter backward. With arms flailing in vain for balance Tobias toppled backward into the water and would have landed on his companion if not for the otter’s characteristic aquatic swiftness and skill, who could dash beneath the falling canine form in an instant and take with him a trophy of slyness and skill. 

By the time Tobias could right himself and regain footing, standing upright drenched, dripping and denuded, the otter had sought refuge on the opposite side of the pool. The limp fabric of floral patterned swimming trunks bobbled limply to the surface between them. The aggravated canine cursed foul and unrepeatable utterances, reverting to a dialect Ivan had seldom heard him speak, as he rubbed water from his eyes and ears. Tobias did little to obscure the newly bared form of his maleness, half submerged, half apparent above the waterline. Ripples of disturbed water ebbed against its shape. Ivan beheld the spectacle, taking care to note the more explicit details for later recall amidst the blur of faded and faulty memories. 

“What was that all about?” barked the indignant canine who did his best to look displeased, despite the way his soaked fur rendered him less than imposing. Water dripped from soaked floppy ears and tendrils of bunched fur as he pointed accusingly at the unsubmerged ears of his mate, who hid a satisfied smile beneath the waters distorting surface. “I got water in my nose! That’s not cool, man! I could have cracked my head open.” 

Ivan remained unmoved by Tobias’ profane taunts, or by the reports of discomfort the canine had endured. Exasperated, the canine dove forward and began to arm-stroke toward the floating tangle of cloth that had until recently adorned his waist. Just as the canine’s trunks had entered arms reach, the otter sprang and snatched the floating fabric with a swift bite, absconding with it to yonder side of the pool, standing proudly back in the shallow end with the sought cloth hanging in his muzzle, jovial satisfaction present in his features. 

The water writhed with more force, splashing audibly against the tiled rims of the pools edges. Dragonflies and hummingbirds timidly watched from the crowning foliage. Tobias’ head struggled to stay afloat in the deep end of the pool, his arms and legs flailed as he tread water, his features were drenched with water that dripped from bunches of fur around his chin and ears. In a heaving motion he paddled back in Ivan’s direction, who again eluded him, imminent to his failed attempts to restore possession of his trunks to himself. 

“Hey! I need those back!” Tobias called, ever the more indignant. 

“Do you now?” jested Ivan, who took the precious cloth and waved it back at him with a scatter of water droplets that fell back upon the water’s surface. “Come on! Doesn’t it feel better?” 

“Just throw them back!” 

“Why?” said the otter with an inquisitive, falsetto intonation. 

Tobias didn’t answer and tried repeatedly to approach Ivan, who managed to stay a teasing few inches out of reach. It took several passes before Tobias succeeded to brush the otter, who perhaps intentionally allowed his waterborne alacrity to lag, enabling the canine’s outstretched finger-pads brief contact with the short smooth fur of his arm. 

“Almost got them there!” Ivan teased, waving the trunks as a matador does his cape. 

With each additional attempt Tobias’ skill improved though his pants remained in Ivan’s possession. His desperate grasps managed to take hold of the otters paw, then tail, then foot-paw though Ivan continued to slip away with ease. Perhaps Ivan was the only one to know that he was slowly affording Tobias more luck in his efforts with a particular goal in mind. With a particularly slow pass Ivan lunged close to Tobias, whose practiced reflex finally caught Ivan by the shoulder, or at least would have caught if not for the otter’s different intentions. Instead the canine’s grasp slipped, his fingers desperately sought hold on the otter’s toned body but found none as they gild through his short chest and belly-fur. Tobias’ fingers could only latch onto the white linen fabric of the otter’s own swim trunks. In a rapid instant the otter’s body kept moving while the trunks stayed in place. With a neigh on purposeful kick of his foot-paws, the otter slipped out while the trunks grew limp in the successful canine’s paw. 

“Ha-hah,” exclaimed the soaked canine heaving the stolen trunks above his head as if he claimed a prize. 

“Wrong pants,” said the now equally naked Ivan, who emulated the gesture with Tobias’ rightful trunks. 

“Good enough,” said Tobias who smiled and regained his confidant composure, only slightly derided by his dappled appearance. He held out the white linen trunks and dropped them on the waters heaving surface with satisfaction. He then fell on his back and floated off in full nudity and contentment. 
Ivan emulated the same gesture, discarding the stolen trunks and joining the canine on the slowly calming water’s surface. With idle strokes and course corrections they floated on their backs, steering themselves to each other’s proximity. They wordlessly gazed up at the cloudless sky and the sway of trees and foliage directly above them. A bird, an insect or a butterfly would cross their vision on frequent occasion. Ivan felt his heartbeat slow to normal as he drifted. He heard the water rush around his ears and resonate through his body. The floral scent of an orchid trumped the persistent smell of chlorine for an instant, he did not know the new scents origin. His chest, belly, and sheath remained exposed to the air as he floated. Random breezes carried in from beyond the yard and swept through his wet fur sending a cool, no, cold chill through him. By contrast submersion seemed warm and favorable, yet he tolerated the sensation as a reminder. 

“Love you Toby,” said Ivan in almost a whisper. 

“Love you too Ivy,” replied Tobias in nearly the same tone. 

Ivan’s paw neared the idly paddling paw of the canine. As if per instinct they clasped each other in innate consent. Both stared skyward as the sun shifted its position, the dappled shadows of foliage and the ripple of water moved about them, yet they remained in position save for the buoyant forces at work upon their naked bodies. The ever-evolving reflective patterns upon the wall near their chairs had vanished though neither articulated the change. The sun began to vanish behind the tall wall of cypress and the shadow-play within the court-yard faded into gray and vanished. Both felt loss and knew exactly why. 

“Shall we?” The canine asked rhetorically, a discernible falter his voice belying the shivers of cold embracing his body. 

“We shall,” answered the otter. 
Both languidly paddled over to the steps and exited the pool, rivers of water peeling from their fur in streams and drops. Two pairs of discarded swim-trunks floated directionless in the middle of the pool. 
After a swift towel down they beached their naked selves on a spread out towel in the last corner of light hitting the far end of the pool beside a broad-leafed philodendron. The concrete beneath the towel still radiated a long days worth of absorbed warmth. The two damp and naked companions came to rest beside one another, quick to fall into an embrace as much about finding warmth as affection, a familiar 
 “How many days do you have left?” Ivan asked, genuinely not wanting to hear the answer. Affection, time tempered and tender that needed no further words of reassurance. The affection that could only come from knowing, of comfort and of contentedness both recognized as fleeting, and knew to cherish. Tobias lay on his back with his muzzle to the sky. His brown and white fur matted from head to foot in tosseled tufts. Ivan lay beside him with his paw on the canine’s chest, his whole body drawn near the faint warmth of his companion. Together they lay, watching time erode the last sliver of sunshine. 

“I lost count,” said Tobias pausing before concluding, “not many.” 

Ivan contented himself with an indirect answer and clutched a wet tuft of canine chest-fur. Damp bunched follicles of canine fur unraveled and bushed out stiffly as he rubbed them apart between the pads of his thumb and forefinger. The fur felt cool and detached, Tobias made no reaction, only his chest and belly rose and sank with the steady undulation of breathing. The otter’s webbed fingers dove into the canine fur, seeking out the living warmth of skin, and found it, appeased. The warmth of his companion, a perfect temperature appreciable only in contrast to the dampness, etched its place in his memory, setting the standard for a subconscious ideal of intimacy. Fingers delved into canine fur in search of flesh and bareness beneath bareness, combing across denuded torso molding fur like clay in long trenches from chest to flank with a touch as light as a botanists. A tense of muscle, a reflexive twitch unseen but felt beneath a compassionate paw, quivered across Tobias’ bare flank indicating what may have been a faint hint of arousal through nerve and sinew beneath the rust flecked ivory of Tobias’s fur. A gasp almost visible as a mist escaped the canine’s skyward pointing muzzle and vanished into the laden air of evening. A breeze picked up and carried the exhalation off through hibiscus and palm, out of the vicinity. 

Ivan nuzzled the bare chest of his companion, pressing the matted fur of his cheek and the damp strands of stiff whiskers against Tobias’ chest. The canine arm around the otter held resolute for longing despite proximity. A caress, a touch, an innocent exploration of paw-pad over a perhaps less than exhaustively explored portion of abdomen had their effect on the canine’s senses, eliciting the strangely familiar longing via passageways of nerve and synapse. Tobias took in a long deep breath of air laden with the aquatic scent of pool water and the exotic fragrance of lotus and morning-glory and expelled it like a vapor. With the descent of his chest appeared the tapered tip of canine arousal from the swollen bespeckled white fur of his sheath. 

The pink-skinned cock-tip slid from the wet-furred slit and protruded into the humid evening air that embraced it with the same gentle touch of a partner’s illicit intimacy. Ivan’s paw continued to caress Tobias’ belly, feeling the telling twitch of stimulated muscle beneath layers of moist fur and flesh. It took the otter moments to realize that his touch and closeness had awakened his companions arousal, laying eyes on the bared canine and as if by chance he directed his paw closer to the pleasing sight. Fingers swept through dense pubic fur and slightly nudged the stiffened sheath surrounding canine cock. Tobias had felt the familiar stir ebbing in his maleness, the tense of muscle and flow of blood and the 
involuntary swelling of within his sheath. Timid, he willed the stirring arousal away, but desires more resolute prevailed. He sank his chin and averted his eyes from a flock of illuminated cirrus clouds which had appeared overhead at the perception of Ivan’s touch to behold the sight of his growing arousal and the otter’s paw just beside it. As if the undeniable realization of his own arousal granted consent, the otter paw delicately took hold of the yearning member and stroked every facet of its shape. 

Tobias sighed and watched the world darken as he shut his eyes in bliss, delegating other senses to perceive the multitude of pleasures at work upon his body. Ivan’s paw caressed the outline of cock, matted sheath, and balls before taking hold of the still growing shaft. Paw-pad touched cock and caressed the smooth shape, which pulsed and heaved through its grasp, propelled by a needy pelvic-thrust. Ivan easily accommodated every craving movement, taking a firmer grip on Tobias’ maleness and sheath, directing its arousal into the warm air with coaxing strokes until the ample length and girth took its inviting shape beyond the haven of sheath-fur. 

A vocal sigh split the evening stillness. As the sunlight’s fingers slowly lost their grasp on the swaying tips of cypress and the canopy of palms, the otter’s reaffirmed their hold on the canine cock. Webbed fingers with soft, broad paw-pads vigorously stroked the erect flesh, caressing its ridges and curves with a lovers proficiency. Two sets of eyes peered down two muzzles, down past the brown spotted white-furred torso at the rigid arousal pointing toward them. Two pairs of lips on each of those muzzles parted in anticipation, breathing in the fragrant air with new urgency as their hearts began to beat with growing fervor. With the flex of muscles enabling the graceful shift of a long, sleek body, the otter’s whiskered muzzle left its resting place upon Tobias’ chest and approached the pointed tip of his cock. Ivan’s lips neared the exposed flesh, permitting the slightest of expiration to depart. Tobias felt the warm moisture of breath contrast upon the damp skin of his erection, hinting the imminent contact of intimacy his anatomy so obviously yearned for. 

Ivan’s lips touched the tapered tip of Tobias’ arousal in a gentle kiss, directly upon the slit of canine pee-hole. The kiss intensified, the otter’s lips parted, and Tobias’ arousal disappeared into Ivan’s stout muzzle. The otter braced himself, hovering above his companion. His slender body shifted as he searched for a comfortable position, finding it with his back toward the subject of his attention, his mate. With his body curved like an “S”, the otter began to rise and descend, suckling the canine’s cock with his practice honed skill. Tobias distractedly admired the otter’s sleek form, tracing his outline along his spine toward the muscular tail that curved around his head to the tip that twitched playfully beside his ear. The canine gasped with an utterance of pleasure, feeling the otter’s warm muzzle and tongue slurp around every aspect of his intimacy. 

Tobias brought his paw to the base of Ivan’s thick otter-tail to caress its girth in praise of the otter’s skilled actions. The canine felt the ripple of muscle beneath the sleek short fur. Tobias ran his paw up and down the otter’s tail emulating the movement of Ivan’s muzzle. He took hold near the tip, where his fingers could still wrap around the appendage and followed it to its base too broad for even his paw to grasp. Tobias brought both his paws to Ivan’s tail-base to see if his fingers would meet around its girth, which they could if only barely. He then lifted the tail and heaved it over his chest with some difficulty 
and craned his neck to peer at what was hidden beneath. The otter, in trance-like concentration his movements made no reaction of objection. Tobias laid his eyes on the lighter brown fur, the color of creamed coffee, of the otter’s underside. His eyes followed the widening girth of his tail to its base, where the bare pink, wrinkled aperture of Ivan’s tail-hole resided. 

The canine found the otters legs slightly apart as if in stride, two otter-orbs kept inside the light latte-colored furry pouch hung visible this side of his inner thigh. A curve of the same colored fur led from the dangling pair of tempting otter-balls back to the even more appealing bare flesh of tail-hole. Tobias wasted no time in fighting his inhibitions and reached out to touch the otter’s most intimate anatomy, caressing it a delicate touch of his dappled paw. The distinct warmth of body heat emanating from the supple opening conducted through the skin of Tobias’ paw-pads as they caressed the soft wrinkled texture of otter-tail-hole still wet from their swim. Ivan continued unfazed, his lips perched tightly around the canine’s cock-base, sensing the shape of knot distinguishing itself. His tongue twisted along either side of Tobias’ shaft from tip to base and back to tip, erring to lap around the sensitive ridges and pee-slit. Ivan felt the manipulation of his tail and sensed the exploratory probe of paw-pad on his innocent intimacy, anticipating what would come next with both anxiety and excitement. 

Tobias returned his paw to his muzzle, licked with a broad damp lap and returned it to Ivan’s exposed tail-hole. The canine wet the tender folds of Ivan’s intimacy with slow circular sweeps of his index finger, gliding paw pad against bare, most personal flesh. With a curled tug of his finger Tobias gently located the exact opening to the otter’s body and dipped his fingertip inside, immediately encountering resistance from the guarding band of muscle there, but with calculated force aided by provisional lubricant the digit passed into Ivan’s body. Tobias bucked that very instant, Ivan felt his muzzle filled by canine cock that delved as far back as his throat. The taste of his lover’s pre began to trump the vaguely chlorinated taste of bare flesh and fur exposed to pool-water. Ivan welcomed the change, accepting every drop of the telling fluid that poured into his mouth with the ever more frequent throbs of canine cock. The new scents and tastes fueled his own arousal and negated any reservation he would otherwise have felt towards the violation of his intimate passage by the canines probing finger. Ivan felt his defenseless tail-ring spread by the furred and padded finger that slid into him with ease, stuffing his other end and eliciting the strange sensation of fullness associated with sex. 

Tobias repeatedly thrust his finger into his companion’s tender tail-hole, feeling the warm interior of his mate though paw-pad skin. The otter maintained his actions carefully caressing the canine cock with the inside of his muzzle, though he grew noticeably more distracted the deeper Tobias probed into him. Ivan still managed to urge Tobias to the brink of climax, before the canine interrupted, withdrawing his finger from his mate’s body and bringing his paw to the otter’s shoulder with a telling touch. Ivan slowly withdrew his lover’s cock from his muzzle and turned his gaze back over his shoulder. His mouth hung open as he panted; saliva and pre circled his mouth and clung to the fur around his lips. His pupils set in the corner of his wide, expectant eyes expressing timidity so unlike his characteristic playfulness, as he directed his attention toward his mate. He kept his tail raised, the intimacy of his nether regions exposed to the lascivious gaze of a loved one. 

After several moments of pawing his mate, Tobias brought his paw around and rubbed some of the otter’s own pre onto the folds of his intimate opening. Ivan then felt the curved up tip of canine arousal touch the bare skin. It felt cool at first since the colder evening air had sapped heat from the pre collecting on the canine’s cock-tip, but warmed rapidly as Tobias’ body-warmth conducted through from the canine’s body to Ivan’s. The warming tip pressed into the otter’s tight ring much like Tobias’ finger had earlier, but as it slipped into Ivan’s body the difference in size and girth became clearer with every moment. Ivan gasped as Tobias’ ridged cock-tip plunged past his quivering tail-ring and grit his teeth wishing for a more effective lubricant than spittle and pre. His eagerness allowed him to accommodate every additional inch of his mate into his body without pause or protest. His own arousal began to ache as the sensation of fullness within his intimate passage grew and the pressure of cock-shaft upon his prostate forced throbs of pleasure through his entire genital region. 

“Here,” said the canine in almost a whisper, a tremble in his voice. Tobias’ paw slid from the otter’s shoulder down his spine and came to rest on his right butt-cheek. The canine rolled to his side and braced himself on his elbow as he got to his knees, erect member protruding stiffly from his hips with a little rope of pre and saliva hanging from the upward curved tip. The otter got to his knees as well, guided more by instinct and obedience than by his mates non-verbal instructions. He kept his thick muscular tail lifted, curled up and around over his back like that of a scorpion. The modesty in his features came through clearer, still he showed no reluctance but rather an indescribably self-composed submission Tobias had always admired and found particularly sexy. As Tobias positioned himself behind his mate he glimpsed the otter’s fully firm arousal hanging beneath him, its long narrow shape and domed tip told of Ivan’s eagerness, belied by outward timidity. ‘The canine reached for and took hold of the slender otter-cock and stroked it with a firm stroke of his paw. Tobias found Ivan’s smooth, rounded cock-tip slick with ample amounts of pre-cum that the canine used to slicken the otter’s shaft with. Ivan gasped and bucked into Tobias’s pre-slick paw, further expressing his passion and eagerness. 

In a brief sequence of heated moments Tobias hilted his otter with a semi-intentional thrust. Ivan gasped anew as Tobias’ throbbing cock-tip spread apart his deep insides, seeping canine pre-cum through his otter-bowels. Ivan felt the large hemispheres of Tobias’ knot pressed firmly against his stretched opening, struggling to no avail to follow the sizable shaft already within him. Tobias instinctively bucked, pushing Ivan forward on his elbows, but still the knot would not enter. The canine then withdrew and began his regular cycle of thrusts, sending his arousal slickly through his mate’s tender passage while the otter remained braced on all fours eagerly accepting every thrust, anticipating every jolt of pleasure and sensation derived from each motion. Tobias braced himself against his mate, leaning on the underside of Ivan’s muscular tail for support. The canine reached beneath the otter and gruffly groped at Ivan’s maleness, gripping for sheath and shaft and hanging ball-sack in a bid to reaffirm proximity to his lover’s manhood. He finally wrapped his fingers around the long slender cock and began stroking Ivan with the same accumulating intensity he made love to him with. 

Ivan braced himself stoically as Tobias continued to mount him from behind. The otter shut his eyes, becoming dependent on other senses. He could visualize his mate’s canine cock sliding through the folds of his insides, throbbing and oozing pre that would cling to his walls. The movements felt smoother now, quicker and slicker than before. He felt the tapered tip, its ridges and pee-slit dragging against the smooth passage and pressing against his prostate, giving his mate, as well as himself, the most pleasurable of intimate experiences. He felt as well as heard the slapping of Tobias’ knot against the bare flesh of his tail-ring, just beneath his upturned tail. He could visualize the glistening knot impact with the stretched skin and try in vain to force its way in. He thought he could even see the little ropes of pre-cum connecting Tobias’ sheath with his flesh, stretched and thin with each thrust. The steady slap of venous dark-pink knot against his body became the most prominent sound. 

Above all, Ivan felt the growing throb of arousal throughout his entire maleness. Tobias’ constant and now rapid thrusts sent him gasping. He felt his entire cock, from deep shaft to tip ache and he felt that ache in his balls and prostate too. Tobias continued to dutifully stroke his cock and did so with deftness. The canine’s fingers slid along the slender shaft, rubbing pre into the slick bare skin with suede like paw-pads. The paw-pads slid over his rounded cock-tip and teased the vertical pee-slit, coaxing pre from the tiny orifice. Ivan felt his climax build, the complex chain reaction of synaptic activity commence and crescendo. It was a particularly vigorous thrust from his mate that pushed the canine’s cock against the otter’s prostate and set the final switch that sent the copious waves of otter-cum through the tubes and ducts that led through the otter’s shaft and out his cock-tip in energetic bursts. 

The otter’s climax echoed through his body, forcing his strained tale-hole to flex repeatedly around the invading cock thrusting through it. Tobias too began to lose himself in the heat of intercourse. He wrapped his arm around the otter’s tail, clutching it tight as he would the trunk of a tree. His other paw held onto Ivan’s man-hood, stroking it with all that was left of his concentration. His need for climax took priority, an extension of his innate need to breed and achieve progeny through love if not the act of love. His thrusts grew more intense and needy. He too visualized his mate’s interior passage, flooded with pre and stuffed with his canine cock. Tobias saw the narrow intimacy of Ivan’s bowels flooded with his seed and willed the image into existence, or rather the sensuous, slick and warm surroundings of his companion’s passage facilitated that release without the explicit need for will. Tobias felt the jerk of Ivan’s cock and the seep of otter-cum upon his paw. His powerful nostrils picked up the familiar whiff of Ivan’s scent. Within a fraction of a moment Tobias found himself hilting the otter in one last powerful thrust, exhorting so much force that his knot almost entered the woefully stretched otter-tail-hole. 

The white warmth of Tobias’ canine cum jetted into the otter’s body, spurting deep into his intimacy and seeping into every corner of his bowels. Ivan moaned and then sighed with relief, feeling the throb of his companion as he emptied himself inside his mate. He felt the soothing fluid of cum spread out and appease the sensual soreness throughout his pelvis. His tail-hole flexed and fluttered, clinging to the rock hard shaft until Tobias had emptied himself, eager to keep every last drop of cum Tobias could give. Ivan felt hot exhalation on the nape of his neck. The throb of the cock inside him began to reside and the semen inside him pooled and seeped into every available gap and crevice. Silence resumed, broken only by the sound of panting and crickets beginning their evening concert. The otter sighed, a slight wisp of a smile on his whisker laden cheeks. 

Ivan perked his rounded ears as his body, panting in disunion with his mate. He thought he could hear the wing-beat of a hummingbird overhead. A songbird sang nearby. Wind rustled through trees. A cold wind blew and swept across his still wet fur sending a shiver down his spine that culminated in futile flex of his tail-ring around his companion’s girth. He thought he could distinguish between the scents of greenery, flower and cypress but also perceive the scents and musk of sex faint in the fresh air around him. He thought he heard, as if from a distance, the sound of traffic. 

The two lovers clung to each other in the aftermath of their lovemaking, maintaining the pose of coitus for several moments to come. Both sighed and breathed deep, slowly catching their breaths while letting the tingle of nerves subside and the ebb of awareness resume its dominance over instinct. A webbed paw reached back to caress a canine hip. A speckled paw rubbed over sleek dark brown fur, tracing the outline of spine and muscle. Another paw caressed a slick slender cock shrinking back into its sheath with a thread of cum oozing from its pee-slit. A final paw trembled with fingers clenched into the fabric of a towel, a thin membrane interspersed with cloth. 

Tobias’ cock soon slipped from the embrace of Ivan’s intimate passage, leaving his lover’s tail-hole gaping, sore, and slightly reddened. The semi-soft canine cock glistened with pre and cum, despite the growing pallor of sunset. The canine leaned back on shuddering knees then collapsed supine beside his companion who still leaned on all fours beside him. His limp cock lay on his belly and his tail wagged between his spread legs. The otter eventually rolled onto his side with a thump, sighing as the pressure on his joints was lifted. He too spread out on the large towel beside the canine, lying down without reluctance in the puddle of otter-cum he had made. Both gazed skyward, nude, with limp, used cocks still protruding from sheaths, observing the milky white blue of fading sky framed by the canopy of foliage. Cirrus clouds shone gold, transitioning into shades of orange and red before turning gray and vanishing. A flock of birds no one bothered to count appeared high overhead in V formation and flew south, a distant squawk may have been heard. 

Ivan sighed at the sight, “looks like it’s ending,” he said and turned his gaze to Tobias who still looked distractedly up high, taking his time to respond. 

A laconic, Yup,” was all he uttered. 

“I’ll miss you, Toby,” followed the otter. 

“I’ll miss you too, Ivy,” said the canine with a poorly disguised falter in his voice. 

“Promise me something, Toby.” 

“What’s that?” 

“Do what you can to stay safe over there. And try not to forget me either.” 

“I won’t and I will try.” 

“Please do.” 

An unseasonably cold evening wind, laden with coastal moisture blew through the yard. The plants and trees trembled, flowers lost petals. The thick, verdant leaves of palm and philodendron swayed as if uncomfortable against the coolness. The otter and canine shivered, still damp spots of fur stung. Slick and sticky cocks retreated into the warmth of sheath. They both looked at each without a word other and stood up, draping their naked frames with the broad towels. Hooded like monks and under cover of encroaching dark, they gathered their belongings and bottles with a clank and left the backyard paradise for indoors. Their gait turned to a sprint and on silent padded feet they disappeared around a newly lit electric lantern that had attracted a single gypsy moth.

Brevity © Rufus Quintin