# Brothers in the Deep

* * * * *

The kobold slinked dejectedly between alleys, pausing to sniff back his tears. He traced his claw tips over his scales, over the spot where he had once been a boy. There was no pain, but no sensation either. Nothing beyond what he might feel touching his own arm.

***Atone***, his god had commanded.

By hunting down the warrior Moonlight and ... seducing him.

Amaeru wondered if dying might be the easier option. There must a be less painful means than being hacked to bits by an enraged dragonkin that did not care to be propositioned. *Drowning himself in a watering trough, for instance!*

Though if he did, would he wake here again? Would he be feline, or stuck as a kobold?

Would he wake at all?
 
The boy had formed many theories over the months of living here. It was reasonable to think he had always been here. Perhaps he just couldn't remember his true past? Bargub might have adopted him--a helpless amnesiac--out of simple pity.

He still remembered his life with Master Kei but had difficulty remembering the ancient dragon's features. It was impossible to remember the layout of the library he had grown up in. It felt more a dream than all of this.

As convinced as he was that he had died once already, he was unconvinced he could die again without consequence.

Amaeru followed distantly behind the rowdy rumbles of the barbarian's drunken singing. Moonlight meandered his way from town. A wide floodplain flanked the river feeding the city's trade routes. It stretched toward the nearby foothills from which the river emerged.

Moonlight trudged across the plain until he reached those distant foothills, climbing toward an outcropping of rocks that gave vantage to the plains and city below. A fire crackled somewhere amongst them.

"Ho!" The dragonkin waved a greeting and disappeared behind one of the large boulders surrounding his campsite.

*Finally!* The kobold at his tail dropped to the ground, creeping along to poke his nose around the obstacle.

"What, couldn't find a warm bed to spend the night in?" A tall elk guffawed from his spot by the fire. A garland of preserved plants and roots hung from his neck and he tended to a small iron pot that bubbled over the flames.

"The stars make a better roof for you and I, druid." Moonlight picked a stone to slump against and tossed his axe to the side.

"Was there a library?" A high-pitched voice squeaked from a frail looking fox. Amaeru wouldn't have noticed him, perched atop one of the boulders like he was. He was dressed in silk and looked wildly out of place between these seasoned travelers.

"Do not mock me, tiny noble." Moonlight growled.

"I didn't say you had to *read* them, you brute." The fox made a show of rolling his eyes. "It's been months since I've had something to read and old Renn thinks me too much a child to explore, unescorted."

"I can't stop you, Ari." The druid's voice was exasperated as he turned to his barbarian friend. "You see what you've left me with?"

"You could silence him the way I do." Moonlight made a lewd gesture that he undoubtedly thought was more subtle than it was.

"Hush." Renn flicked his ears toward the dragon.

"You're paid to escort me, not to insult--" Ari began to protest.

"--no, *hush!*" The druid exclaimed, rising suddenly to his feet.

* * * * *

Before Amaeru could react, the mass of a larger beast thumped against his back. A paw clapped around his mouth, an arm around his midsection, hefting him into the air. It dragged him with surprising speed down the slope from the campsite. Pebbles clattered behind them and underfoot while the little kobold squirmed to free his arms.

It loped off with its prey, snickering. The smell and taste of something else's blood smeared across Amaeru's nose and mouth. This creature had killed recently--and would do so again, by the slop of drool that was collecting around the kobold's pointed ears.

In the night and the commotion, it was hard to make out much about the animal. It announced its victory with a wild cackle, bounding from rock to rock with native fluency. Other cackles and howls answered in the distance; it belonged to a pack.

When it had dragged him far enough from camp, it snapped its jaws around the back of the boy's neck and squeezed its crushing teeth through Amaeru's scales. Fresh blood ran between them, flecking off the kobold's shoulders.

Amaeru cried again. His eyes stung from the effort; so much had already happened to him in such short order.

The reek of death poured from the creature's mouth.

*Gnolls! Idiot child.* His frustrated god snarled inside his ear. *What have you done?*

Amaeru sobbed in silence. What good was it to explain himself now?

The gnoll snarled around his neck and began scrabbling its way toward the mouth of a cave. The other howls were closer now. Some of them sounded as victorious as this one, some of them not. All of them were hungry.

*We must not die here, Amaeru.*

"WHAT?" The kobold screeched. "I AM GOING TO DIE! YOU SAID--"

*Not here! NOT HERE! **You** will not return.* For once, his god's voice dripped with concern. The gnoll yanked him across the threshold of the cave and into the unlit depths below. Amaeru struggled fruitlessly in the animal's jaw, scraping his ankles on the sharp stones of the cave floor.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Amaeru kicked and lashed his tail against the damp fur surrounding him.

The cave's interior was dark, but a kobold's eyes were well-suited for it. The walls were irregular and the passage was steep in its descent. The gnoll occasionally took a terrifying leap of faith into the darkness but always landed confidently. The ceilings protruded with the teeth of the earth: pointed stones that sweat with moisture. It all contracted into a narrow hole barely a shoulder's width apart.

The pair of them squeezed through, Amaeru's body clutched close like a prize.

The smell of dried blood and decay stagnated all around him. Here, the ground flattened into a cavern wider than his eyes could see. Scrabbling sounds echoed from all directions. Somewhere, something else was crying. Somewhere, flesh was tearing and bone was cracking. This was their den; those sounds were his fate.

The boy clawed relentlessly to no effect. His bloodied feet banged at the trunks of the hyena's legs. He writhed in its mouth, ignoring how the nape of his neck ripped against those tightly clamped teeth. He screamed his resistance on deaf ears.

His body was carried effortlessly toward the approaching sound of running water. There must have been a subterranean river or aquifer down here, feeding the den with fresh water before emerging on the surface.

And then: it dropped him. Amaeru smashed his nose against the ground. He whimpered from the impact and knew another part of him was now bleeding. The cave went quiet, the chewing and tearing and cackling all stopping at once. All around him were starving eyes assessing this new quarry. 

And beneath each pair of eyes gaped a jaw ready to taste whatever part of him they could wrest from the others.

But they only stared. Their open mouths craned wider, croaking together in an unnatural chorus.

"Yeeesssss, my frieeeennnnd. It hassss beeeeen tooooooo loooooonnnng."

Amaeru glanced wildly between them all, a trapped animal in a cage of teeth. Even the one that had abducted him now hunched over his ears and growled tones that formed part of the pack's speech. Each gnoll was a different pitch, the words struggling into existence as the sounds converged on him.

"Who are you?" The kobold wiped the blood from his nose, not daring to push himself off the ground and invite the hungry monsters toward him. The eddies of the subterranean river frothed somewhere beyond his vision. He wondered if diving into it could carry him to safety before he drowned.

"Morsel." The gnolls burst into cackles once more, repeating the word to one another before lurching back to unison. "Youuuuu did not thhhhink you were the oooooonly one, diiiiiiid you?"

He could still feel fluid gushing from his nostrils. The rocks between his claws were wet with his own life.

"The only *what*? Who *are* you? Why haven't you just *killed* me?" He spat his questions, tasting the iron on his tongue.

The gnolls peered confusedly between one another, then sang: "Dooo youuuu forget meeee, brotherrrr? I am *Saaaaahnnnn-Yiiiiiii*."

Amaeru knew instantly: the devourer. An evil as powerful as his own that took a more literal interpretation of their shared and constant hunger. *Sahn-Yi* was gluttonous: always hunting, always eating. The evidence was scattered across the floor of this cave.

Only now did Amaeru notice the bodies strewn between the pack's feet. Farm animals and villagers alike--half eaten, their delicious soft organs fought over by the strongest members. The limbs and faces gnawed on by the weak and sick. The scraps played with by their young.

And yet all of them looked at him now as if they had never eaten in their lifetime. The helpless kobold shivered.

"Doooo noooot fearrrr, brrroootheerrrr." The gnolls laughed together. "Weeee willll feeeeed youuuu befoooorrrre you feeeeed usssssss."

Amaeru wretched at the offer, shaking his head furiously. "No! No, please. I don't ... I don't eat ..." He couldn't think of how to describe the carcasses littering the floor without insulting the pack. Without making them skip to the part where he became their next meal.

"Weeee knnoooowww." The animals began to shuffle toward him with purpose. 

Amaeru scrambled for the sound of the river. The gnoll behind him pounced and pinned him forcefully against the cavern floor. His face scuffed against the gravel; his chest scraped in the effort to escape. The gnoll collected the boy's wrists easily and stretched his arms over his head. It jabbed a knee into his back to hold him confidently in place.

"We know *your* hunger, brother." The one on top of him leaned over his ear and snarled in its own distinct voice. Its rotting breath was familiar now. "Do not fear us. You will hunger no more."

Their collective meaning became immediately obvious when Amaeru felt the aggressive hyena reposition over him. Its knees climbed over either side of the boy's hips and the warm weight of something rigid and slick slapped against the side of the kobold's flailing tail.

The others closed in around them, snapped away by this one's vicious teeth. Amaeru felt it poke and drag along the scales of his hindquarters, searching for its target. He screamed and twisted, using whatever inches of purchase he had under the creature to avoid its spear.

It bit into the boy's ear, those brutal teeth tearing through the thin skin and sending a shock of pain deep into Amaeru's skull. He couldn't feel that ear any longer, only a terrible burning where it might have been. Sickly chewing sounded above him, dripping remnants along his cheek. He wailed for mercy, remembering his god's caution: *he couldn't die here!*

The hyena reared back and drove home, the momentary distraction enough to find the boy's entrance and plunge its canine cock with animalistic alacrity. It seared inside him, claiming him against the rest of its pack. Even now, the others jockeyed for position. 

The gnoll released his paws, confident now in its dominance, and instead yanked his tail taut over his back. It slapped forward, hips meeting the kobold's in achingly rapid succession. This was the pace of an animal that knew it had to finish before it was deposed. An animal that cared nothing for pleasure; the only thing that mattered was being the first to seed him.

Another hissed and snapped its way to the front of the pack. Amaeru could barely make it out in the darkness before it was crouching in front of him. It snatched at his face, hooking its fingers into his mouth and prying it open. They tasted of gore, making the little kobold wretch all over again. It crammed them behind his tongue: perhaps testing if the boy would bite, perhaps curious if he would gag around them.

He did gag. The taste was intolerable! But those fingers kept shoving into his throat.

He made the most pitiful sounds, the pistoning cock still punishing him as he tried not to choke on this new challenge. The bulb of a canine knot had started to form, bouncing regularly off his abused tail. Every thrust was a marked attempt to force it in.

He snorted shallow breaths through his bruised nostrils, his throat plugged by scraping claw tips. His captor panted above him. It was ready to finish. He could feel its length twitching in the deep hole it had carved. Everything hurt in a way that made him numb; all parts screamed for relief and none of them could be acknowledged.

He stared up at the hyena in front of him. It had picked up his head and was leaning its stained muzzle over him. Those black eyes were searching for something. What did it want? What would satisfy it?

He wanted to beg for it to end. He would say anything. He would do anything. Please, make it stop!

The hyena grinned back at him, loling its tongue. Amaeru realized it was merely waiting its turn. This was only the beginning. There was no other way to placate these monsters.

His body gave way. The knot pried its way inside him with a triumphant series of yips. It throbbed and spurted, locking his tattered body against the beast while it filled his guts. Despite having had so many men take him, little Amaeru had never felt so used--and so very full--as he did hanging off the bragging hyena's crotch like a spent rag. 

The rest of the pack giggled along, jostling against each other in shared excitement. The strong among them crowded in, grabbing at Amaeru's arms and legs. Each was suddenly intent on their own share of this mutual toy. He gasped for air as the one in front popped its fingers free of his throat to defend itself from a usurper. 

Shrieks and snaps surrounded his prone body. A new gnoll yanked possessively at the kobold's outstretched arm. The plug buried in his tail wouldn't budge, yanking back and stretching him between them. A third joined the brawl, trying to pry the one that had knotted him free.

No amount of force was going to pull that thing free! The creatures began to spit and fight in frustration, claws raking and bodies wrestling for supremacy. Tail-first, Amaeru dragged along the floor like a limp puppet. The fresh bruises and cuts meant nothing to him now. He could still feel the bulge in his stomach where the hyena had lodged, jabbing around as it fought off the others.

And then, it screamed.

A flash of bright light exploded from its skull, making the others recoil. Amaeru's world went white. The gnoll's weight thudded over him, crushing the air from his lungs. It was still; it was dead.

 "PRAY TO YOUR GODS, FOR YOU WILL MEET THEM SOON!" Moonlight's battle cry shook the cavern, the massive barbarian leaping into the fray. Amaeru could hear it all: the crunch of bone and the wet sprays of carnage as the axe swung from one monster to the next.

The shouts of the druid and the fox--Renn and Ari--were somewhere amongst the din. They must have tracked the creatures all the way to their lair! The ground trembled with the tumult of battle and magic. The dragonkin roared with rage, all of it lasting barely a minute before the cacophony ended.

Ari's torchlight showed the gnolls dispatched (mostly in pieces) amongst the bodies they had been feasting on. Amaeru whimpered quietly under his gnoll, his eyes still blurry and stinging from the flash of light. He felt the body's weight pulled free; the limp remnant of the hyena popped free of its home inside him.

He didn't move. He didn't want to imagine himself like this: prone on his belly, bloodied and maimed, a monster's seed drooling out of him. He didn't want *this* to be the way Moonlight saw him.

"You are safe now, child." The dragonkin rumbled simply.

"By creation, what happened here?" The elk trotted up to examine the boy. He knelt to dab at Amaeru's torn ear.

"He's lucky we got here when we did." Ari wrinkled his nose at the carnage, disinterested in the boy.

Amaeru pushed himself shakily onto his knees, his tail curling protectively under his body to save him at least some of the humiliation of being found this way. He stammered to say thank you, but words escaped him.

"You poor thing." Renn cooed, petting the kobold's remaining ear back. The elk glowed dimly with a white aura and intoned a spell, brushing away the cuts and bruises that marred the boy's body. Warmth filled the kobold and the pain faded miraculously. His wounds closed, but his missing ear refused to grow back.

"You should kill him, too." The short fox chided. "He's a kobold. And a black one, at that."

"No! Please!" Amaeru found his voice, clutching at the druid's arm and shoving his muzzle against the kind man's chest. "Let me serve you, please."

"Whoa now, there, there." Renn chuckled, shooting a glare at his fox companion. "Nobody's going to kill you, you're just a boy."

"An evil kobold." Ari corrected.

"The black-scaled ones *are* trouble." Moonlight muttered.

"Moonlight!" Amaeru gasped, crawling to kneel in front of the great barbarian. "I will be no trouble for you, only a loyal servant."

"How did he know your name?" Ari spat. "He's just a monster, like the others. Finish him off and we can be on our way."

Moonlight considered the boy. His eyes narrowed with suspicion. It was clear he didn't recognize Amaeru. 

Amaeru understood there was no reason he would--when he had served him drinks, the kobold had been a beautiful panther. Now, even if his body no longer stung from injury, his pride was another matter.

"Enough, you two." Renn stood and dusted off his cloak. "We aren't killing him. You both saw what happened here. He deserves a meal and a night's rest."

Yes, a meal.

Amaeru kept staring up at Moonlight. So close now, he could reach out and touch him. He could have his meal. But the way the silver dragonkin glared left no room for negotiation: he was to keep his distance ... for now.

"Thank you." The boy managed to whisper. "You won't regret this, I swear it."