Merrick could feel the Border Horizon just beyond the rocky crag that he and his companion clung to. It quickened his feral blood, calling him back to the dark place he fled from not two months before. The ashy winds encroaching from the portal rushed through his unkempt fur like a plague. If Merrick went back, if he returned home after everything he'd been through in Ysillia, he knew that the dark would be the end of him. He knew that the sun here had weakened him substantially, and crossing the Border Horizon would tear his body apart. He hadn't told this to the docile Ysillian clambering up the cliffs beneath him. He knew Aaron too well. Knew that he would try to stop him. Knew that Aaron would let the portal consume all of Ysillia if it meant keeping Merrick.

"I can smell something burning," Aaron yelled over the rumbling of the constant quakes.

"The Horizon is becoming unstable. This land will be ash soon," replied Merrick. He hoisted himself over the edge, and finally met the ground again. "We're running out of time.

Merrick reached down to grab Aaron's outstretched arm. He had felt his short, well groomed fur the previous week. Became intimate with it. Holding it again reminded him that he wasn't returning home at all. His home was right there, dangling from his firm grasp above the Ysillian plains, with the stupidest look of hope and pride on his face.

Aaron collapsed onto the cracked earth and desperately tried to fill his lungs with air again.

"We don't do a lot of climbing here in Ysillia," Aaron said in between deep breaths. "I'm sure you figured that out." He lazily turned his head to the side, and his eyes widened, illuminated by the crimson light pouring from the rip in the sky. "So that's the Border Horizon, right?" he said. "You came from there?"

Merrick didn't answer.

"Hey, Merrick," he continued. "We're almost there."
	
He turned around to face the exhausted Ysillian. Aaron's chest heaved up and down, visible through the tattered remains of his leather armor. Light from the Horizon reflected off of the sword at his side, painting rays of red across his abdomen.
	
"Aaron. I have to tell you something," he started. Merrick wasn't prepared for this. He never had to tell someone he loved that he would never be able to see them again. He choked on his words. Tried to hold back tears.

"I can't close the portal from this side. I have to cross over."

Aaron looked at him with the determined, selfless look that Merrick had grown to love in the past two months. "What does that mean for us?" he asked. "If the portal's closed, how are you getting back?"

Merrick went to where the young warrior lay, and without a word, knelt over him. Straddling his pelvis, Merrick lowered his face into his companion's fur. His scent was more than an aroma. It was a tangible feeling. He looked up into Aaron's eyes. Aaron's beautiful eyes. Aaron's beautiful muzzle, scratched and bruised by the long journey. Aaron's beautiful chest, heaving sporadically, bursting with anticipation. Merrick lingered for a second, and kissed him forcefully, pushing his head into the dirt. He needed to do more than kiss him. He needed to consume him. Be one with him.

Merrick could start to feel a bulge pressing against his own. As he kissed harder, the blood continued to engorge Aaron's cock. When the rod started to prod Merrick's testicles, he began rocking back and forth, grinding both of their packages together. He could sense his own penis growing in his pants, breaking the confines of his undergarments. He continued to grind until the friction of his cock-head against the rough leather of his armor became too much, and pulled away from Aaron.

Merrick's often dexterous hands failed him when it came to unbuttoning his trousers. He fumbled with the fasteners for a few seconds before Aaron reached up and undid them himself. The Ysillian pulled down Merrick's pants, letting his long, swollen dick bounce momentarily in the glow of the cataclysmic portal in the sky.