Barking laughter.
CRACK!
That tittering laugh just wouldn’t stop.
CRACK!
CRACK! CRACK!!
The crocodile slavemaster stilled his wringing hands as the stallion emerged, gruff voice lowered.  “Master…That woman’s stricken mad.”
“She’ll break,” he muttered back.  “She has to break sometime. Everyone does.”  But sometimes sanity broke before their will. He’d seen it in a rare few of these barbarians. There were scant few clients who would pay at that point, but, well… what could you do?  The one, the only good thing: it would dishearten the rest of hyenas.  Some of them were so bloody stubborn.
Guards hauled her out.  The hermaphrodite hyena.  She was panting hard, not laughing anymore, but she still wore a grin. If one ignored the whiplashes, she looked perhaps like she’d just finished an exhilarating race.
The crocodile loomed over her.  “You think this is funny? Do you actually enjoy this?”
“That was your prince earlier, huh?”  The hyena eyed him.  That grin.  “Bright pup. I don’t know what the gryphons are planning, but you’d best be careful…”
The slavemaster scoffed.  The hyena was hauled back to her cage.
They’d made a big mistake. They’d put her in sight of some of her compatriots. Her manic grin faded to a satisfied smile.  When the guards were all out of sight, she raised a fist.  Hunt-speak for strong.
A distraught hyena across from her signed back.  You. Strong. How?
She met the eyes of the younger hunter, but made her signs large. So everyone could see.  Us.Together. Visions. Guidance. Together. Strong.

* * * * *

Falia panted softly.  “No, a little higher. It’s the-AH! That! Yesss!!”  Her thighs instinctively wanted to close; she kept them spread them again by sheer force of will.  Rai had just discovered her clitoris, and the affect it had on her. She shuddered and whined.  He’d brought her to two climaxes this morning after she explained her g-spot, hadn’t he had enough yet!?  His narrow tongue rolled through her cleft again and again, and her little button wasn’t getting a break.  A deep groan escaped her and she worried she was about to pull a muscle from the tension alone.  “A-A-AH RAI! PLEASE!”
He picked his head up immediately. “Are you okay…?”
“Mercy…” The vixen panted, returning to her senses.  “Ah… you’re fine. I’m just…really sensitive after I cum.  After the second round, well…”
“You’re sure I didn’t hurt you?”
Falia let her head fall back and took a deep breath.  He was a sweet one.  “Try it again when I’m ready for another round,” she purred.
That beak teased into her folds again. “Good.”
“You’re a monster, my dear prince.”  She couldn’t help but smile.
He threaded his tongue into her tunnel again.  Her eyes fluttered shut. This kid was insatiable. He was sticking his tongue right back into the mess he made there just minutes ago… “Doesn’t the taste bother you?” 
Rai didn’t even pull his tongue out. “Neh.” 
She wasn’t a fan of administering that particular art, herself. She’d been around the block, so to speak, but… having a beak spread her nethers was a new one for the fox. The prince couldn’t spend all day with his head between her thighs, however, no matter how cute he looked down there.  Sooner or later they had to break to answer various bodily needs. And didn’t a prince have something to do besides play with his new favorite toy?
Yes, Falia was a toy. But life could be worse, she thought, petting her prince. Much, much worse.
“Oh my.”
The vixen looked up. There at the doorway, leaning against the archway, a jackal woman. Most of her fur was on display, with the side-slit dress she wore, and it was all black apart from a golden pattern around her right eye.  The Anubian queen!  She looked amused, surveying them - her own son! - in the nude. The vixen abruptly found a sense of dignity and moved to cover herself with bedsheets, but… Rai was sitting on them in nonchalant nakeness. The vixen gave up with a shrug. 
Queen Anu chuckled. “Somebody was busy. Please tell me you slept last night.” 
Falia slid off the bed and into an over-dramatic bow.  “I can attest, your highness… He slept like a baby.”
Anu sized up the vixen with a satisfied smirk.  “Very well.  Come, my fledgling, at least put something on.”
Rai rolled out of bed to collect a clean robe. “Why am I bothering, again?” The gryphon chuckled as he covered himself.  “I’m just going to get naked again at the temple.”
The fox glanced at him.  Just what kind of temple was this, again?  He noticed her gaze, shot her a reassuring smile, and mouthed ‘later’.  Well if he was getting dressed…  Falia started digging for her own scant outfit.  It was somewhere in the sheets…
The queen slid into the room, nose twitching as she followed her son in his haste to get ready.  “I recommend sending your playthings home before they fall asleep. Morning romps are quite the luxury, but you still need to bathe.”
“But at least I can think clearly. I couldn’t focus on lessons when all I had on my mind was borrowing Iru later.”
Falia’s ears perked up. She knew her prince was insatiable, but she assumed it was because it was all new to him.  But it was bad enough to impact his performance? … Oh, that’s where her loincloth ended up.
Anu spoke with soft sympathy.  “If you’re anything like me, it does get better when you mature a bit. That or you just get used to it. Either way…”
“For now, Falia’s mine. I can set her schedule however I want.”  A pause.  “…as long as I’m properly ready on time.”
The fox stood up, straightening her rumpled outfit.  She was behind one of the screens enclosing Rai’s sleeping area, but they were so laughably thin she could watch the two move toward the door.
“I do know how difficult it can be to think straight,” the queen admitted.  “And your fox is cute. But Iru is sexier.”
“I think Falia suits me better, actually.” Rai’s tone was defensive.  “And yes, I am learning to please her.”
“You realize,” the jackaless lowered her voice, “I may have to borrow Falia as payment for loaning Iru to you so much.  I’ll let you watch, though.”
Falia smirked. So many little pieces falling into place. And the queen liked girls…? She rather expected most of the royal harem to be men.  Shajara was more … open than she was expecting.
Anu barked a laugh, and it echoed in the corridor as they departed the room.  “You’re adorable when you’re flustered, sweetling.”
“I’m starting to think you need a romp in the morning!”
“It’s more fun teasing my fledgling!”
The reply was too indistinct for the fox to make out.  And… they were gone.  It was dead quiet.
Now what?
The slavemaster had sent her to the palace, where she’d been handled by one set of guards after another, shown to a bathhouse, given this skimpy affair she was wearing, and delivered to the prince’s chambers with no further instructions.  Did Rai forget to tell her something important, like where to go when she wasn’t in use?
No… more likely he hadn’t even considered it.  He was a prince, and young.  Surely he didn’t dabble in the details.
Falia drifted out of the sleeping area and through the chamber. The architecture was one of the hardest things to get used to, here. Everything was so wide open.  There were no doors.  No windows.  Privacy was granted only because - or rather, if - anyone showed a modicum of respect. Shajara had some strange notions about decency.  And since there were guards all over the place…?
She’d had the misfortune of seeing one yawn.  They didn’t have tongues.
And here was Falia, sating the apparently rampant sexual needs of someone years younger than even herself!  Not that he seemed immature, far from it…
A little cough. The vixen spun to face the doorway, really wishing there’d been a door she could’ve heard opening.  There stood one of the most modestly dressed people she’d seen yet.  A narrow figure, a lizard of green scales with a patch of red across his the throat. He tipped his head in greeting.  “Falia, I presume.”
He didn’t look too officious, so she didn’t bow too low.  “You have me at a disadvantage, ser lizard.”
“Zhenten.  I manage Prince Rai’s estate.  That now includes you.”  He said it politely.  His eyes stayed polite as well, and he had a mellow kind of smile.
“I expected to get a rundown sooner or later.  So what shall I be filling my day with?  Am I to make the bed?”
“There are other servants for that.”  The lizard turned, beckoned. The fox trotted to catch up and walk astride. “You’re already well acquainted with your role. It doesn’t change in your off-hours. Whatever prepares you to serve; you will care for your body and mind alike. If you’d like such duties to occupy your time, that can be arranged.  At most hours, you will have access to the terrace gardens, bathhouses, library, temples, medicines, trainers… And the royal harems are a social strata all their own.  You’re free to interact as long as we don’t have any interpersonal problems. Jealousy just isn’t something we tolerate.”
“I imagine not.”  Falia thought back to the conversation between Rai and his mother.  He’d been borrowing from the queen’s harem.  Doubtless she’d meet this Iru sooner or later.  And being… shared by the queen?  Anu liked females. The vixen liked the open atmosphere these people had, but she wasn’t quite sure how to feel… being wanted by the queen.
Zhenten directed her down a new hallway.  “Given your attitude, I don’t forsee you causing any problems, but I am obliged to say it anyway. If for whatever reason you refuse to adequately prepare yourself, you will be made ready.  Again, body or mind.”  He said it gently, but there was no doubt he was meant there would be serious repercussions.  “Ah, here. This will be your room.  You’ll be sharing it with Khali, one of the queen’s girls who’s been here quite some time.”
Falia looked into the room.  Two beds and a truly daunting armoire stood out. Her roommate wasn’t here at the moment, apparently. 
“Let me know if you two don’t get along or you’d like your living arrangements changed.  We mainly do this to give you ready access to someone more experienced. Ask questions, share concerns. Get… ideas. The sort of thing you wouldn’t want to ask me.”
She shrugged at the lizard. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t ask you.  You’ve been a perfect gentlemen.”
He gave a shallow laugh and grinned.  “And some of the queen’s pets do, indeed. The boys. My personal experience and… interests don’t really include females.”
The vixen tilted her head and smirked.  So Shajara really was that open.  “You don’t say?”  
“Good… that doesn’t bother you.”  He gave a courteous nod.  “I think you’re going to fit in here just fine, miss Falia.”

* * * * *

It was easier to concentrate during lessons. Mideus the monocled mongoose lectured on ancient conquests of the empire, touching briefly on old cultures absorbed by Shajara. Rai didn’t comment, he just wondered how long it would be before another of the northland nations was swallowed up and relegated to a forgotten footnote.  Most saw it as a grand saga of the empire.  Mideus delivered it as dry facts. Rai was beginning to feel it was more of a slow, methodical march of destruction and assimilation. This was his nation. And he was beginning to see what drove it: demand for a steady influx of slaves.
Talez kept eying him sidelong, but pretending not to when Rai noticed.  Setiir was…  well, quiet as he ever was.
They had a handful of writing exercises before Mideus dismissed them. 
No sooner had Rai collected his book and turned to leave, Talez’ wing came around him.  “So Set and I were thinking, it’s been a while since we had a namat tournament. Just the three of us.”  Setiir was under the other wing, the tawny sand cat completely unfazed.
As much as Rai wanted to get back to Falia… he grinned. It had been a long while. He didn’t want to loose his edge. “You’re on.”
Their typical haunt for games was an antechamber by the highest terrace gardens. Big open windows, a gentle breeze bearing fresh herbal scents, a comfortable sitting area, and a full sized namat board. Rai set himself down cross-legged at one corner of the hexagonal table and claimed a sack of onyx stones. The avian dropped in across from him and snatched the white ones. The prince glanced toward the cat, expecting him to take red, but… instead, he’d dropped across a sofa nearby.  “I’m playing the winner,” he stated flatly.
“Oh…okay.”  Rai shrugged it off, faced down the avian across from him, and slapped down his first piece in the middle of the board. “Then this will be easy.”
A handful of moves in, he was starting to think it was too easy. He eyed Talez.  Did he not see Rai building the Mare? The avian’s eyes flitted from the board to his friends’ face, and back down. He slapped down a tile, blocking another possible Star.  The obvious one. Rai wasn’t used to getting away with high scoring patterns.  He glanced in Setiir’s direction.
The feline had fetched a papyrus sheet and some charcoal. He was quite the artist, when he put himself to it. Rai had always envied the level of detail and depth he could cram into a sketch. The cat was totally absorbed in whatever it was. An ear pivoting toward the game table was really the only sign he knew the others were there.
The prince slid his next piece into place.  And waited. Talez still wasn’t seeing it.  “You… gonna make a move there?”
“Uh, yeah.”  The avian, wing lifted well out of the way not to disturb the existing board pieces, dropped a tile down.
The gryphon eyed the placement.  “Are you…okay?”  
“Huh?  Yeah, why?”
“You wanna… rethink that?”
The vulture gave him a stubborn, cross-winged stare.
Rai shrugged and dropped a black piece into place. 
“Oh…” Talez shrank back, eyes dropping from the completed Mare.
“You could’ve blocked me any time in the last four moves. I’m not even being subtle, anymore. There’s no way to recover at this rate. You’ve got something on your mind. Spill it.”
“I… don’t know how to say this.”  Talez swallowed, avoiding the prince’s gaze.  Abruptly he glared over at the lounging feline.  “What in desiccation’s name are you even doing? Back me up, here, Set!”
The sand cat swiveled his gaze at the two of them, shrugged, and flipped his drawing board around for them to see.
Rai frowend at the immediately familiar scene, even unfinished as it was.  “What… That’s…  my chambers?”  But the angle had to be from…  the balcony?  His eyes honed into the center of the image, the most detailed portion, his bed and… two entangled figures. “You were spying on me!”
The cat raised a finger to his lips and gestured toward the corridor.  Of course there were guards in earshot.
“My idea,” Talez admitted sheepishly, keeping his tone low. “You were acting all weird for days. You wouldn’t tell me anything, and you kept rushing off right after lessons.”
Right.  Because all he could think about was Iru.  Rai hunched. He wanted to feel mad, but… he couldn’t really blame them. “There’s been a lot I wanted to say… but I got the sense your dad would be really mad if I did. My mother thinks I was… ready… earlier than usual. Look, it’s complicated. And how do I broach that!? ‘Hey by the way, everything we’ve been taught about sex? It’s not just about babies, it feels amazing!  Oh, and I can’t think straight anymore because I can’t get enough. Also your dad took me to buy a… a slave! To have sex with all the time!’”
The prince almost bit his tongue when he realized how loud he’d just gotten.
Talez blinked.  “Was that really so hard to say?”
Rai felt his cheeks heat. “Gods and godrain, yes, yes it was!”
The vulture held up his wings.  “Alright, alright. Look… maybe I crossed a line. You’re my friend. I was worried. I asked Set how we could find out what was up, and… Well. I can’t help what I saw. Maybe I shouldn’t blame you for holding back.  Shall we call it even?”
“Even?”  Rai dropped his eyes to the game board.  “I was afraid you’d be jealous.”
“Oh, I am. But that’s not really your fault. That’s the adults. I asked my dad last night… big mistake. I didn’t know it was, uh…sex… Now I’m amazed he did it with my mom. I mean…” He swallowed.  “I’ve never seen a girl naked.  Or really anyone. Is it really that life changing?”
“I mean… my life changed. A lot.” Falia. Owning a slave. Questioning slavery. That hyena. “But mother says it’s a lot stronger for her… our bloodline, and that I developed early because of it.”  But developed how? He opened his mouth to ask if Talez had ever been unsheathed, but snapped his beak shut. Were sheaths unique to mammals? Had he read that somewhere? His face burned, and he screwed his eyes shut; it didn’t help, he was still undressing his friend in his mind.  How could he think that!?  And why was he hard again…
“Uh… you okay?”  Talez nudged the prince.
“Yes,” he gasped, made himself look at his vulture friend.  Clothed.  “Yes. Ah… one more thing you should know. I’m-”
“Shh!” The vulture hissed suddenly, picking his head up.  Rai heard it a moment later, a steady clicking gait from the hall.  Someone with talons.  Talez’ own father rounded the corner.
Setiir somehow flipped his papyrus sheet over in dead silent fashion, and began roughing out a completely new scene like nothing had happened.  Rai glanced, thought he recognized one of the temples’ characteristic archways.  Amazing how fast Set could whip up something that looked like he’d worked on it an hour.
The praetor vulture swooped in, eying the stones arrangement, then leveled a decidedly disappointed gaze at his son. Talez wilted. “Hi dad. You’re not here to whisk Prince Rai off again, are you?”
“No, I came to collect you. We are hosting the naga dignitaries tonight. The entire family should be present.”
Talez shared a glance with the prince. Both nodded.  Rai watched his friend rise with the understanding they had unfinished business.  Avian father and son quit the room.
The gryphon’s thoughts wandered, his gaze drifted past the windows to the terrace gardens. His life had changed. He lost himself in the gently wafting greenery outside; flowering bushes and trees from distant lands bowing lightly in the breeze.
Click.
He drew his attention back to the present, and Setiir now across the board from him, placing a white tile.  “Sure you don’t want to start over?  Talez left in a bad spot.”
The cat shrugged. “Nothing in life is a clean slate. We’re all born into something. It’s up to us to try to make it into what we want.”
“It’s a game of namat, Set. It’s not a fair start.”
“Sounds like a challenge, doesn’t it?” Elbows on the edge of the table, fingers steepled, the feline leveled the prince with his principle intense gaze.
Rai grinned and slapped down another black tile.  This was probably the best chance Rai ever had to beat the sand cat one-on-one, but he’d have to bring his A-game. And be a little gutsy. “Hailstone?”
Set clapped a tile down, withdrew his hands to his lap, and rapped a claw sharply on the side of the table.  Rai moved fast, tile in, hands out, and clicked a talon the same way.
Click, tap. Click, tack. Click, tap.
The idea of the hailstone variant was to think and move fast. They tapped their turns in a quick tempo. The tap signaled the end of a turn.    If Rai took twice as long as Set to figure out his move, the cat could legally keep playing without waiting. Playing Setiir in a normal, methodical game was virtually impossible - he saw everything coming and the best one could hope for was a stalemate one-on-one. Typically Rai and Talez worked together to box Set in quickly and level the odds a bit - though if they tried too hard to one-up each other, the cat still broke out and beat them sometimes. Without a third player, speed was Rai’s only chance, and he wouldn’t call it an advantage per se.
“I’m growing wings, by the way.”
“Talez won’t be happy.”
“I imagine not. I’ll have half again as many limbs!”
“Sounds inconvenient.”
“I’m beginning to feel that, yes.”
Since Rai had gone first, Set placed the last piece in the last available intersection and they began tallying the score.  Rai pointed out the completed constellations he’d made.  He’d focused on making as many small, low-scoring patterns as he could, because Set couldn’t block them all if he wanted to make any points of his own. “I see four North Stars, the Mare… and the Great River. I’m surprised you let me get that one.”
Set traced a pattern over the board.
“…Is that the Glyph and the Dragon’s Tail?”  The prince sighed.  “I didn’t recognize them inside each other like that.”
“And a Red Dune.”  The sand cat pointed at the far corner.
“Ouch. I thought I was doing better than that.”
Setiir chuckled. “Now I want to know something. With Talez’ father yesterday… something happened to worry him.”
Rai leaned back, uncertain.  “The praetor, worried? Are you sure?”
The sand cat wore a stoic expression, and he couldn’t hold that gaze for long.
“Er…  I mean, I was just being stubborn after I made a bad call about what slave I wanted.”  He shrugged. 
“Rai, if the praetor is worried, I’m worried about what that means for you.”
The gryphon hesitated.  There was a reason Set was the way he was. His family was highborn, his father the treasurer, but it was an open ‘secret’ Setiir’s mother was the queen’s primary liaison with the Underbelly. The fanciful rumors sometimes pegged her as the head of a secret order in service to the queen. The sand cat’s incredible attention to detail was no coincidence of talent; it was a honed skill.
Set also orchestrated quite a bit of mischief when they were younger - Rai, Talez, and the mastermind Set. They joked of a golden age, a whole string of childish rule-breaking feats they accomplished without getting caught. But they’d grown up since then.
The real question was, did Rai trust him? He had to decide.

* * * * *

Moonlight shone bright over Rai’s balcony. He and Setiir sat cross-legged, overlooking the city.
“You think there’s something special about this hyena prisoner?”  The young gryphon couldn’t quite bring himself to call her a slave. Being a slave was a mindset and he really doubted that woman could be broken that easily.  “Maybe because she’s a hermaphrodite? I didn’t even know there were any natural ones, outside the royal line.”
“They’re unique as a species.  About one in fifteen hyenas.”  The sand cat hummed, fingers steepled. “Never mind the anatomy of their average females.  Besides them, you’re right. It’s incredibly rare. But I seriously doubt the praetor would be worried a barbarian would be destined for the throne. Nobody would stand for it. No… he’s more worried about your interest.”
“I found her fascinating. Such a strong will. So firm in her belief. After the first thing came out of my mouth, she saw right through me.”
“Hyperbole. You’re obsessing, Rai.”
“Maybe I am,” he admitted. “But the more I think on it, the more I think… the way she hated slavery?  Not because she was one, but on principle? The more I think she’s right.”  There was the crux of it. The thing he was most worried to admit. It was legitimately hard to level with Setiir’s gaze, but he did. He tried to search those inscrutable slit orbs. They gleamed at just the right angle, reflecting rays of the moon tinted by the sand cat’s emerald irises.
If the revelation moved him at all, it didn’t show. Set just carried on. “And what are you going to do about it?”
“What can I do?”  The prince gazed out at the stars, sighing. His eyes traced the Dragon’s Tail. It lingered low on the horizon this time of year.  “I’m not an heir. I’ll never have the power to just… end the practice.”
“Nor should you, even if you could. You could ruin Shajara economically if you succeeded. Nothing in life is a clean slate.”  Set hearkened back to their namat match. “But you were dealt into an advantage. What do you want to make of it? Plan. Make a move.”
“You say that. Does that mean you think it’s wrong too?”
This time their eyes met, it was the feline who glanced away.  Rai waited for an answer.
It never came.  “…Set?”
The cat sucked in a breath.  “Discussion for another time, perhaps. I’ll ask again. What’s your next move?”
Rai swallowed.  “I don’t know why keeping that one slave locked up bothers me more than all the rest of the…  labor stock. But I want her. Her name, her… perspective. I want to be worthy of her. … I’m not making any sense anymore, am I?”
“You intend to get it following the rules she set out?  Freedom for her tribesmen?”
He said it in such a… cold, calculating way. Was he actually planning something already? “Set, you’re worrying me. A-Are you serious? This is dangerous talk.”
“If I told you it was possible, would you do it?”
“I… don’t know.  I’d need to know the risks, obviously.”
“Better question. Would you forgive yourself if you said no?”
“Desiccation,” Rai breathed.  “I don’t know. Let me worry about that if you come up with a plan I think stands a chance of working.”
“Very well. I will leave you for the night.”
The sand cat’s silhouette swished over the railing.  A muffled fwump against the terrace roof.  And Setiir was gone.  Rai rose in a trance, drifting back into his chambers, where a single wick lit his sleeping area.
Sloshing.  Rai barely registered the noises, moving beside his bed and stretching methodically. Working kinks out of his spine. The high priestess said it would help with the growing pains his wings were causing him.  About the time he finished, he was enveloped by damp paws from behind.  “Well, I had another lesson the female anatomy all lined up, but with that face?  I’m guessing it’s postponed.”
“I’m sorry, Falia.”
“Don’t be.”  She lowered her voice.  “I splashed enough for both of us. I doubt anyone heard your friend out there, but they probably already think we had our fun.”
She toppled to two of them into bed and cradled Rai, letting her fingers explore his fur and feather.
“Do you hate being a slave?”
Falia took a long moment, gathering her thoughts.  “Do I hate the idea of being property? I don’t like it. But I’m not treated like property. I have a lot of liberties as long as I fill my role. I made good friends today.  I’m one of the very few, very lucky exceptions, though.”
He sighed as she stroked over his ears.  “What would you give up to be free?”
“I think you’re asking the wrong fox. I came to Shajara because I had nothing to begin with. Half-expected to end up a slave… as I did… but I had to try. Now, it’s more about what I get to keep.”
“What about other-”
“Shh.”  Falia cooed over him, stroking Rai’s chest. “No more questions. Sleep now.”
He sighed, giving up and drifting to sleep under her gentle petting.

* * * * * 

Rai opened his eyes and clutched the… empty space beside him.  Lethargy melted away; he groped about the bed urgently and tried to lift his head.  Two nights he’d slept with a girl, and he already felt something was missing if he awoke alone.  “Falia?” he croaked groggily.
Soft padding footpaws.  “I’m here.”  The fox’s paw slipped into his seeking hand.
“You’re up early.”  The gryphon gave her a side-eyed smile.
“I’m not the only one.”  She smirked, trailing a paw over the thin linen sheets. Rai flushed as her fingers brushed the tent pitched by his morning wood.  The fox’s fingers cupped the cloth about it, giving it a gentle stroke.  “I asked the servants to draw a bath, but it won’t be ready for a while yet.” 
“I see you’re not wasting any time.”
“Nor should you. Don’t you listen to your mother?”  Her fingers rubbed his length through the fabric.
He couldn’t help but grin at her doting.  “You want to get right to it, then?”
She reached for the sheet and Rai helped her throw it off, exposing him.  But Falia didn’t lay down; she straddled his young body.  This was new to him, but he quickly saw the appeal.  He grabbed his length and angled it toward her slit, but the vixen pried his fingers away.  “Ah-ah.  Let me.”  Falia lowered herself, letting his throbbing boyhood graze her slit.  The gryphon tried to buck beneath her.  His tip splayed her flower open, but she angled her hips, and he slipped out with a groan.  The vixen ground her nethers down against his length, rolling her sex against Rai’s cock but not letting him in.
This wasn’t like their previous sex, this was…  However much he tried to thrust, she could move against him, and it felt amazing… or with him, and it was nothing at all.  The prince quickly gave up completely, reduced to panting desperately.  He needed her, but she was teasing him!  And it felt incredible. “Falia!”
“Yes my prince?”
“Will you let me take you or not?”  He bucked futilely.
“Just getting you nice and ready.  Hold still.”
Rai growled softly, but stilled himself.  Hot, head to toe, he waited as she wrapped her fingers about his shaft and aligned it.  Just the tip slipped into her pussy.  Her hips rolled, his back arched, and he lost himself instantly.  Rai spilled his seed with only half his length inside the vixen, and they were barely moving.  Falia blinked as she felt it.  A blush and wicked smile alike came over her, and the prince lay panting beneath her.  “Rai, my prince?”
“Yes?”
“You really need to work on your stamina.”
The gryphon sucked in a breath and sat up on his elbows.  “You do realize I’m not done yet.”  He hadn’t even gone soft yet; his cock still throbbing halfway inside her folds with his seed dripping from her tunnel.  “I still want to try making you cum with my tongue again.  Lay down.”

Her smile faltered.  “But you just…  ”  
“Falia.  Please.  The taste doesn’t bother me.”
She shrugged it off and swung herself…  Wait, she wasn’t laying down.  Her tail swished above Rai’s head and her nethers came to meet him. The gryphon chuckled. Godsrain, there were so many ways to do this.  If she were just a touch closer…  The prince wrapped his arms around her hips and tugged her down.  He loved the way she yipped at that, but he got to work spreading her folds with his beak.
A noise stopped them.  Footsteps… wait, was Zhenten here already?  The prince tipped his head for a view toward the door… from beneath Falia’s breasts.  She was watching too.  A zebra girl in a servant’s gown shuffled into view hauling two steaming buckets.  She looked up.  Her eyes bulged, she blushed hard, but quickly shuffled on toward the bath.
Rai shrugged it off. A nuzzle into his pet’s pussy got Falia to do the same. As he licked through her folds, her soft paw encircled his still-solid erection.
The vixen’s tongue slid across Rai’s boyhood; a very undignified squeak escaped him at the new sensation.  Her muzzle closed on his full length.  So hot, wet…  He blinked back the lusty haze, though.  This game had been far too one-sided.  To resolve this, he plunged his tongue deep into Falia’s tunnel.  Yes, he tasted his own seed, the salty-slick mess he’d left there but a moment ago. But her moan made it entirely worth it.  The fox slid her mouth along his shaft, a lewd mimicry of sex, but the gryphon humped regardless.
That thrust gave her a start; the fox gave a displeased gurgle. So the young prince stayed his hips and instead flicked his tongue across her clit.  That moan was more like it!  She redoubled her efforts, suckling the young gryphon cock, and Rai replied by lavishing her pleasure button.  Long, wet strokes, or little circular motions. Switching his tactics on the fly caused Falia to tense, quake, and shudder.  Rai could feel her desperate moans on his cock!
But the young prince wasn’t done yet.  He brought a hand to her nethers, replacing his tonguing with a gentle rubbing finger.  He tipped his head back a touch more, and slid his tongue deep inside her. Falia’s knees clenched together with a sultry pleasured groan was dredged from her very core.  Her tunnel clamped down on his oral appendage, vice like, quivering.  Rivulets of foxy girlcum ran down the prince’s beak.  Rai hummed with pleasure, throwing himself into another orgasm right along with her.
At his first spurt, the heat and wetness of her muzzle vanished, replaced with a quick paw beating him off.  He spent a few more strings of white royal seed against his own black fur.
A moment of heavy panting, and Rai’s erection finally receded.  Falia swung off the bed; easier than clambering around on the bed to face each other.  The gryphon caught her wrenched expression and saw the very forced swallow.  “The taste really bothers you… Why did you do that?”
“It’s not that bad except…”  The fox wiped her mouth and glanced aside.  Zebra girl was back with more buckets.  She hushed her tone.  “…until the end.  I didn’t plan on… I wasn’t expecting it yet, is all.”
Rai slid off the bed and reached up, cupping her head.  She bent to his level.  “Falia, you should have said something!”
Her expression softened.
“You’ve taught me so many wonderful things,” the gryphon continued, “If there’s one or two you don’t like, I’d never ask them of you.” 
“Did you like it?”
“Well,” Rai smirked.  “Yes.”
“Then I’m glad it wasn’t a complete waste.”  Her eyes slid away.  “It was just…  a given.  When I was being trained for this kind of role.”
The young prince brushed his fingers against her cheek and caught her gaze once more.  “You don’t ever have to do that again. At least if I have anything to say about it.”
She smiled, took his hand from her cheek.  No more needed to be said.  Nude and messy, they walked out and over toward Rai’s bath.
It was a recessed pit in his floor with three steps down.  It was impossible to fill with just two loads of hot water, but it was quite full enough and steaming, smelling of rich fragrances and epsom. Obviously the dutiful Zebra had been by several  times unnoticed.  Rai sighed heavily, stepping his scaly lower legs in the water, legs and tail shortly after.  He stopped at the second step, but Falia plunged all the way in; the deepest point was shoulder-height on her.
Rai reached for soap, but the vixen slapped his hand away.  “Now, now.  Let me do this.”
“You know I don’t need a second mother, right?”
“Don’t you?”
He sighed, took a dunk, and allowed Falia to soap and wash him.  Her fingers were gentle, diligent, and occassionally ventured to massage. It was quite nice to be held and handled in the steamy water. 
“Really, my prince?”
“Hmm?”  He blinked his eyes back open.  It took him a moment to realize.  Her paw was hovering on his sheath and… and he was unsheathed again.  He chuckled weakly.  “Sorry.”
“You realize I can’t leave this be?”  Her fingers wrapped around him.  Now called to his attention, his boyhood grew rapidly.  Her paws were soapy, gliding easily against his skin as she stroked him.   “What kind of faithful plaything would I be if you weren’t fully sated before you left for the morning?”
Rai tipped his head back against her.  He was all but floating, enveloped in heat.  Falia’s breasts against his back, her touch drawing him out to full stiffness, dragging little moans from his throat.  He thrust his hips; it did little but make waves, but it felt so nice to give in, let his body move.  And that soft voice in his ear.  “Go ahead, Rai.  Let it all go.”
He was panting, bucking needily, and her suggestion was all he needed; just lay back, breathe out a hefty moan, thrust into eager fox fingers.  He came hard into Falia’s paw, spilling the last of his seed for her.
“Very good, my prince.”  She swept his ears back and kissed his forehead before helping out of the water.  The young gryphon felt faint. Was he having another episode, like when he passed out at the feast…?  No… the chill he felt getting out of the bath denied that. But it was sorely tempting to crawl back in bed…  Next thing he knew, a towel came at him, and Falia was drying him head to talon.  “I’m not a helpless-”
“I know,” she shushed him, yet again batting away his hands.  “This is my gratitude.”  She helped him into a clean robe.  Their eyes met, and he went still.  She bent down.  Muzzle and beak parted, and their tongues embraced in their curious breed of kiss.  They pulled each other close.
A shallow cough broke them apart, and their eyes darted toward the door.  Zhenten was pointedly not watching.  “My prince. The priests will be happy to know you appear to be on time.”
“Thanks to Falia.”  Rai was watching her when he said it, even if he was talking to the lizard.  “She’s taking good care of me.”

* * * * *

Mideus pulled Zhenten aside when the prince arrived for lessons. Rai spared them a glance, but proceeded to his seat.  Talez looked harried.  The vulture’s head was down, shoulders hunched.  “Are you okay?”
“No!” His beak clicked it snapped shut so hard.  “My house is full of nagas. They keep looking at me like they want to bite me.  This delegation’s creeping me out.”
Maybe not the best time to mention Rai’s wings.  “Well, you can relax for a bit. You still owe me a game of namat, though.  A real game.”
“Uh, yeah, about that? I have to leave the lessons early. Special ceremony at the temple Father’s taking the delegates to…”
The gryphon glanced to the empty seat to him.  “Where’s Set?”
He threw a wing-spread shrug.  “How should I know!”
“Godsrain, Talez!  Take a breath!  You’re going to be okay.”
The avian muttered something unintelligible and glanced back to the corridor.  Mideus and Zhenten finally broke up and…  There was Setiir, entering with their instructor.
“Now, masters Talez and Setiir will be leaving early today.  Stencils!  I’d like to get as many practice sessions in as possible before that.”
Rai glanced at the sand cat.  “You too?”
Mideus shushed them urgently and put up the first passage for them to copy, concluding any chance of discussion.  The graying old mongoose wasn’t kidding; it was one practice passage after another.
His classmates departed a half-hour apart.  Mideus handed the prince an abacus, and he resisted a groan. He needed the most help with mathematics, and it usually came from Set. Even Talez had a better head for numbers. And right now, Rai was very much alone.

* * * * * 

“Oh, nobody told you?”  Iru chuckled over her cup.  “I suppose everyone in Shajara very long takes it for granted. The Anubian Queen is always a hermaphrodite.”
Falia sat back and nursed her own drink.  Mulled wine was apparently the norm, regardless the time of day. “That does explain a lot.”
Since she’d known the name of her ‘competition’, Falia decided to get to know Iru. She’d gotten directions and found her fellow plaything in one of the terrace gardens. She hadn’t expected a white fox! Rare enough even in her own homeland. The queen was right; Iru had exceedingly lush curves. Her company was pleasant too, and the older vixen was able to confirm some of her suspicions. “And the sex drive is hereditary too?”
“Blessing of the royal line.  I always assumed it only touched the true heir, but…  Well, you’ve been with the prince.”
“Oh, I know,” Falia laughed.  “Thrice this morning! And I fully expect he’ll be ready to go again before the night is out.”
The white fox smirked. “Cute how needy he is. But spending a few days with him really makes me appreciate just how skilled the queen is.”
Falia twinged defensively.  “Little Rai is learning fast.” 
“I’m sure he will. I know finding a truly good lay ‘in the wild’ is a rare treat. I’m just spoiled.  The royals get a lot of practice.”
“I can see that.” The younger fox sighed softly.  Yes, this life could spoil one all too easily. Sortof distracted one from the fact they were property, didn’t it?  The elite surrounded themselves with the kind of playthings who were only too happy being slaves.
“You’ll be fine.”  Iru must’ve noticed her expression shift with her wandering thoughts. “Who are you rooming with?”
“I think her name was Khali.”
“Ah. Caracal? She’s the high priestess’ firstborn. Very old traditional donation to the harem. She doesn’t see much attention these days. Just tell her if she’s getting too handsy.”
Falia was still struggling to absorb the Shajaran culture. Traditional donations of one’s own daughter?  To the queen’s harem.  A hermaphrodite.  It was a lot to process.
She sat up as she heard footsteps, and Zhenten stepped around the row of shrubs enclosing their little garden sitting spot. “Ser lizard again! What can we do for you?”
He gave each of them a nod.  “Nice to see you settling in, Falia, but relax. I just want to introduce everyone to my new apprentice. He’ll be helping me with record keeping mainly.  He’s a bit shy, but I may have him deliver summons as well.  I don’t want it to come as a surprise.”
Tagging on the lizard’s heels was a young green eyed sand cat.  Wait, was he the one from the other night…?  Those eyes!
“Iru, Falia. This is Setiir.”