# The Great One Below --- "Amaeru, come." The ancient red dragon's voice hissed from behind a stack of spellbooks. Each book must have been worth a fortune in gold and the dimly lit library held thousands amongst its shelves. A hoard of knowledge and artifacts from around the world, protected by the wyrm's legendary avarice. Amaeru, the black-scaled kobold in question, had been lingering over an ornate, sealed porcelain jar. His ears were rounded and his tail was long and feline, betraying the boy's half-breed heritage. Though to be fair, his insatiable curiosity about all the objects in his master's library had already shown him to be part tabaxi. He had been daydreaming about the kind of djinn the jar might contain and the kinds of wishes it could grant. He flicked his short, fluff-fringed muzzle toward the summons. "Yes, master Kei!" Master Kei's long red tail snaked his direction, writhing with its own intelligence and snapping its tip against the boy's ear. It was only twelve feet long, but somehow it never had trouble finding him in the cramped passages between the old dragon's tomes. Amaeru was intimately familiar with how many times a tail of that length could encircle his diminutive frame and wasn't interested in finding out again. The boy leapt to perch atop the stack of books closest his master. Despite inhereting none of a tabaxi's traditional height, he could at least count on his unusual agility to keep him one step ahead of his master's tail. "I'm here, sir." The red dragon hulked over a paintbrush, placing delicate runes along the seventeenth line of power in his summoning circle. The eight-foot creature did not look up from his work. Amaeru knew that master Kei could choose to be a hundred times this size, or a hundred times smaller. Once, and only once, Kei had explained: "I prefer to be large enough to be an inconvenience, and small enough to be accomodated." He liked watching his master work. He hated everything else about being a kobold: he was small and useless, his scales were a dull black instead of his master's shimmering red, his claw-tipped hands were unreliable and clumsy. But being near the fearsome red dragon reminded him that he had pride in something other than himself. He belonged to Kei, simultaneously the greatest mage that ever lived and the most cruel and vicious conqueror the world had ever known. And Amaeru was his singular servant. The only kobold that had ever managed to survive more than a few days in his service without ending up devoured—or worse. He chalked it up to being a tabaxi boy, at heart. He was smarter than the other kobolds. He could anticipate his master's moods and needs in a way no simple kobold could hope to match. And he was cunning where the others had been meek, a quality he knew his master valued even if the dragon would never give him the satisfaction of saying so. "I'm here, sir?" Amaeru repeated, looking across the massive circle that painted the floor of the library. Master Kei had been at it for months, barely emerging but to eat, sleep, and occasionally to rut. In the short lifetime the pliant boy had served him, he'd never known the dragon to speak of a spell with such reverence as he did the one he was casting tonight. "Have I told you what I've done here?" *He had. So many times.* Amaeru was careful not to roll his eyes. "Come, I said." His master's heavy tail smashed across the back of his shoulders, tumbling him off his perch and scattering his body over the runed stones near Kei's feet. The lettering glowed blue to the touch and left lingering echoes across Amaeru's scales where he'd touched them. They faded painlessly as Amaeru scampered back to his feet. None of this was his fault, but he stammered an apology anyway, glaring at that infernal tail that flicked triumphantly from the vantage he had held a moment earlier. Kei waved him into silence, unperturbed. "I'm already the most powerful creature this world has ever known." "You are, master Kei." Amaeru stared up at the imposing old wyrm. It was easy to be in awe of his presence, an irresistable joy to be so close to him, to feel the oppressive heat that radiated from his scales. Even in such a *practical* form as this, dressed in the velvet robes of a mage he had eaten a century ago, the bulk of his master's towering form was clear. The kobold barely stood at half Kei's height when he was trying to look tall, and right now he was trying to look very small and forgettable. "What I've done here is incredible. You couldn't fathom it, if your pebble-sized brain even cared to try." Kei was actually quite kind, for a red dragon. But Amaeru was actually quite smart, for a kobold. He'd been listening carefully to his master's lessons, day after day, month after month. He worshipped his dragon, and part of that worship was to memorize every last thing his dragon told him as gospel. Once, he had even thought to prove to his master how carefully he had been listening. Once, when asked what the great dragon had been doing, Amaeru recited: > Master is ancient, but all things must die (even dragons). Master has conquered all that this world has to offer, but Great Kei refuses to be conquered in death. A dragon must die, but master has discovered something even greater than a dragon. To know true power my master will ascend to godhood. My master has designed this ritual over the aeons, pulling from the vast knowledge of his existence, as only he is capable. Master Kei will be worshipped by all, not just by me. Amaeru had learned that night that Master Kei did not care for having his plan explained back to him, even with the reverence that only a kobold could provide. That rutting had been ... inconvenient to accomodate. The boy pulled his own thin black-furred tail around his waist, remembering the weight of the older male atop him. Inconvenient, perhaps painful, but not unwanted. He'd been told time and again that he was nothing more than a distraction. But master needed distraction if he was to stay sane preparing such a ritual. Being a good kobold meant giving his master an excuse to be distracted. In his own way, he was helping master ascend. Kei was explaining the path to ascension he had invented through summoning and transmutation, a simple theory that involved broadcasting through the astral plane to attract a being of otherworldly power. He was about to detail his plan to overwhelm this god-power when Amaeru ran out of willpower. It was too much to ask, kneeling naked, only an arm's reach from the object of his worship. To sustain a lecture he knew was an hour long, when what he really wanted to be doing was right in front of him. Amaeru scampered beneath the soft folds of those robes, whimpering another apology as he reached for the impossibly warm scales of his master's leg. "CHILD!" Kei roared, rearing back as the panther-like kobold slid against the inside of his tensed leg. The boy's eager nose bumped unapologetically against the hot weight of his orbs. Amaeru's intent was obvious, even to a creature lacking master Kei's profound intellect. "NOT. NOW." "Master please, your ritual can spare you this pleasure." Amaeru cradled the weight of those two impressive eggs between his paws, letting his nose admire them like the precious artifacts they were. A dragon's scent was intoxicating to his kobold brain, drowning out his insecurities about being part feline and compelling him to try his luck, even at the most inappropriate times. "If I allowed all your distractions, I would die of exhaustion before ascension!" Master Kei's voice boomed over the ridiculous lump rooting around under his robes. He had given up training this behavior out of the nuisance boy. Besides, he couldn't deny that his supplicant's attention swelled more than just his ego. "Can you sit still for even *one* lesson?" Amaeru nipped at the deep red flesh that was already flopping free between the folds of his master's robes. Months, now. For months he had been the only way master Kei could remember to care for himself. Only his obedient young servant would dare the wrath of a dragon's power just for a chance to kneel at this altar and perform his own adoring ritual. In master's humanoid form, his member hung from his body like an overfilled waterskin. A tapered head broadened quickly towards a fat stump of a shaft, its underside marked by three increasingly pronounced ridges. Amaeru kissed along them, knowing they were the most tender and sensitive spots his master would allow him near; also knowing they were the parts he most painfully felt whenever the great wyrm elected to bury them somewhere else. It tasted of ash and brine, the texture of the red flesh feeling coarse against the kobold's thorough tongue. Amaeru was well-practiced at shining the older male's length in just this way. He pawed at it, keeping his tiny claws carefully out of the way as he massaged it to life against his lips. The taste of his master's excitement dribbled across his greedy mouth, as predictably as the admonishment from above. "I am busy, stubborn boy." The robes shuffled around Amaeru's ears, one of those trunk legs lifting to try and kick the stubborn intruder free. But Amaeru clung to his task and opened his mouth around the stiffened cock, his lips locking behind the first ridge and his tongue probing along the slick head. He felt his master's knee jab into his midsection and whimpered, crawling forward to cram the second ridge inside. His maw was propped wide open now, his throat threatened by the probing wet cocktip and his tongue pinned neatly under the dragon's member. It was like swallowing an orange whole, only there was still another ridge left before his nose could nuzzle at the scaled abdomen hidden under the folds of fabric. It seared at his lips, the air burning his nostrils with each struggled breath. "Rargh, useless little creature." His master snarled, but the leg that was trying to dislodge the boy gave up its quest. Amaeru could feel the delicate stitching of Kei's robes drape across his face and ears, most of his tiny body still hidden in the commotion. "Is this all your feeble kobold mind can conjure to do for me? On the eve of my greatest triumph..." Amaeru nodded, letting the unforgiving rock between his lips slip up and down against the sides of his mouth. This was how he won his negotiations. Master Kei lectured on about the irresponsibility of it all, while the satisfied boy began his worship in earnest. For minutes or hours, he didn't know or care. His dragon needed *this*; his dragon needed *him*. If he was good for nothing else, he was *good* at this. He jammed the final ridge of his dragon into his muzzle with a strained gurgle. Despite regular practice, his young throat was still not used to the stretch of Kei's tip lodging itself inside him. He screwed his eyes shut and felt the satisfying thump of the dragon's body against his nose. The kobold's feline tail lashed with victory and his paws gripped over the two heavy orbs, their radiating heat palpable between his fingers. He felt the cock twitch and swell quickly in his throat, pressing deeper toward his aching stomach. He felt those orbs pull back in sudden anticipation. *Wait, stop!* Amaeru reared back, gasping a breath of musky air as he negotiated with the flesh in front of him. The sudden growth preceding a red dragon's impending orgasm was dangerous to one's collarbone, as the boy had learned firsthand many years ago. He overcorrected, fumbling to get a grip on the saliva-slick member when it leapt free of his mouth, twice the size as when it had disappeared last. Slipping and letting his master's cock flop into the air at this most critical moment was a grave mistake. Amaeru's ears slid back in shame when the frustrated roar bellowed above them. No true kobold would have let this happen! His paws yanked it back toward his mouth. If he could lunge in time— Master Kei's seed roped across the air, flickering in the lamplight before smearing across the twelfth rune of power. Amaeru gasped and leapt from the floor he had been kneeling against, locking his lips around the twitching cocktip before the second shot could get loose. It exploded into his mouth: thick, viscous and salty. He knew this taste well, but the situation didn't allow him to savor it before gulping as much down as he could. The kobold in him craved this beyond all else. He whimpered his need and swallowed, hoping he could erase his mistake through supplication. The third shot poured free from the corners of his muzzle and dripped out onto the floor from underneath his master's robes. *Ahhh, here you are.* Amaeru didn't recognize that voice, but it whispered with the sound of a dissonant chorus held next to his ear. He gulped down another mouthful and shivered despite the warmth filling his gut. *Go on boy, drink up. Don't let me interrupt.* It instructed him, and Amaeru could feel something slick and tail-like encircling his midsection. He drank sloppily now, feeling bubbly hot dragon seed staining his chin and neck. It drooled against his skin, sticking to his scales and patches of fur. As it dripped lower, it mingled with a long appendage of black ooze that had crawled its way unnoticed around his legs and chest. That wasn't normal. "LET GO, BOY! What have you done?" Amaeru could feel his master's giant claws grab at the nape of his neck, knowing he would soon be wrenched away from his reward. He dove for one final taste but was thrown with the full force of the ancient red wyrm against the nearest column of books! --- When he came to, it was to Kei's enraged howl shuddering books from their shelves,"MY SPELL!" The ancient wooden shelves, the tables and chairs, the myriad potions and jars, even the stone walls themselves seemed to bow and cower from the force of his frenzied anger. Oh no. Oh no! He hadn't meant to ruin the spell. If he had, surely he was about to die. Nothing was more important than this spell, not even Kei's most treasured servant. Amaeru scrambled to escape, but found his body glued to the floor. His paws were drenched in black slime that stiffened and yanked any time he tried to pull his belly off the cold stones. It had encircled his neck like a vice and was creeping over his chin, a tendril hooking under his lip. *Stay.* The whispered cacophany commanded him. Amaeru sniffled back his doubt and obeyed. Another tendril wetted the edge of his ear, dripping its way into the canal with an eerie fluidity. It was neither hot nor cold, only a texture that pressed deep inside his head. He cried out in desperation, cried out for his master, but could not hear himself. Had he made any noise at all? *Your spell worked, great dragon.* Master Kei head snapped toward the mess of books and pages under which his kobold had been buried. Where the voice had come from. The dragon's form grew instantly, thrice over, doubling over to place all four clawed paws on the floor and extend his neck, nostrils flaring with fire. "Who have I summoned?" Amaeru crawled awkwardly to his feet, as a newborn might take his first steps. Tattered shreds of priceless spellbooks fell around him, their knowledge unrecoverable. His body was a smooth black from neck to toes, his muzzle propped open by a mask of sludge that had reached so far back into his throat it could manipulate his voice. *I am not obliged to answer you, dragon.* He gurgled out a sound that did not belong here. "I can obligate you to answer me. This is my plane, not yours." Kei spat a puddle of flame at the boy's feet, making Amaeru's puppeteer stumble to avoid it. The pressure in Amaeru's mind intensified. The kobold tried to shriek but only his eyes darted in momentary terror. *What is this one's plan?* The voice whispered to him, more of a vibration in the back of the half-breed's jaw than a noise anyone could hear. Amaeru subvocalized the plan. All his words, just as he had done before. Only for a new master. *Ah. So be it.* The thick fluid slid across his lips and sloshed over his depressed tongue, like a finger exploring his mouth before bubbling against his throat to speak again. *Dragon, I offer you this power over me. My name is **Ji-Mugral**. I am a being beyond the planes. The Great One Below. Among the great evils, I am drawn to the incredible power you've gathered here.* *You.* The voice whispered in Amaeru's jaw again. *I have come for you.* The kobold recoiled in confusion, the inky slime suddenly thin and runny, slipping off his scales and allowing him to tremble free of its grip. He scampered back to escape both it and the wrath of his master's glare. It pursued him, always pooling at his feet no matter which corner of the library he huddled in. That rivulet inside his ear jabbed deep and refused to release its hold. "JI-MUGRAL!" Master Kei bellowed, stomping on the eigth rune of his circle and twisting his foot to rub out the paint. Ethereal chains sprouted free from its place, rising like vipers at the dragon's sides. "With your name, I can bind you here in service to me. But I have a proposal of more mutual benefit." *I am a deep truth, waiting in all things.* Master Kei kept on speaking somewhere in the background, but Amaeru's attention fixated on the strange choral voice in his mind. The kobold watched the invasive puddle lick at his ankles. It did not restrain him, but was always touching him, pushing an inch higher here and there. *But I must be awakened in each of them.* *What is it you call yourself? Ah. Ah. Mai. Ru. Good. Good boy. That name has power. You will do.* Master Kei had finished describing his bargain, but Amaeru had not been listening. *Ji-Mugral* had spent the time crawling back up the slender boy's body, only this time the ooze felt warm and soothing. Like a strange suit of armor meant to protect something precious. *He* was precious to it, he realized. The kobold's heart still pounded, but he stopped feeling threatened. Something about its touch was comforting. It dribbled past his lips again, feeling momentarily like a kiss before strangling into his throat once more to speak. *I will lend you my power willingly, under your terms, great dragon.* Amaeru puppetted a bow of deference, black goop flicking off his fingertips. *If you grant my price.* *You, little Amaeru.* The private voice swelled again like a lick inside the kobold's ear. *Inside you there's a feast I can smell across the centuries and planes. I must taste all of it, and in my lust I will offer you a boon.* The voice paused, and it was only then that he noticed the black goo had crawled up the body of master Kei as well. Was his master having his own private conversation with *Ji-Mugral*? What price had he named? *I will let you live your every desire through me. I span an eternity of worlds, every being in every moment of time that can dream of my temptation. You will be my avatar, bringing me forth to consume and grow, sharing in my every pleasure.* The voice paused again. Master Kei was looking toward him now. Differently. Amaeru had seen this look before. The focus of his master's desire. His gargantuan form towered in the library, even the vaulted ceilings barely able to contain his true size. A snort from his nose lit another pile of spellbooks aflame. He had struck a deal with this god; old tomes meant nothing to him now. Amaeru could tell the deal was sinister from the animalistic hunger in the dragon's movement. The small black kobold was both a delicious morsel and the most powerful spell ever written. He saw himself reflected in the deep intelligence of the being he'd spent a lifetime worshipping. He saw his fate. *Taking your life will please me, Amaeru.* The ooze pressed the kobold's mouth shut. Amaeru didn't protest. He felt his prone body lifted high into the air, hoisted and dangling from a massive tentacle that lashed free of the floor. Only now was it obvious that the entire library had been enveloped in the inky blackness. The oil lamps floated amongst it, casting impossible reflections through the fluid. The smoldering pages of books, countless artifacts and collections, all floated forgotten in its mass. *I cannot be sated. But so long as you feed me with your desires...* The voice flicked with judgement, as though it knew exactly what those desires were. Amaeru shivered as he dangled in the air, feeling the familiar heat of master Kei's nostrils approaching him. A burning hunger with only one objective, seconds away. *...so long as you never deny my hunger, you will remain as real as I.* Master Kei snorted over the muck-coated kobold, a gout of flame boiling off enough of the black stuff that the boy fell free into the air. Amaeru howled his fear, clawing out for anything to stop his fall. The great dragon's long tongue snapped under him, belting the wind from his chest and tossing him impossibly high into the air above. But wasn't there a ceiling here, before? Now there was nothing. The library was no longer; there was only blank vastness in all directions. *Be terrified, little one. It sweetens the flesh.* Amaeru didn't need instruction. Staring down in a brief moment of weightlessness as his old master yawned his maw to receive him, the boy knew there was no escape. But beyond that, his old master was no longer. *Ji-Mugral* snaked and sloshed every which way across the dragon's once-massive form. In the darkness between planes, in The Great One Below's domain, even Kei looked insignificant. He fell against that massive tongue with a gasp. Every instinct in his body kicked him furiously toward the edge of the dragon's mouth, where arm-sized teeth blocked his escape. He begged for mercy as the tongue slimed his body back to the center of his cage with ease. He had watched Kei play with his food before; he knew he was barely a snack to his dragon. His struggle was merely part of the meal. But it wasn't Kei anymore, was it? Amaeru choked in a slimy breath as he was slapped against the roof of the dragon's muzzle. His feline side threw itself wildly away from the warmth enclosing and yanking at his legs. His kobold side pressed his body into the comfort of the big muscle immobilizing his insignificant body. "Master! Please..." Somewhere, trapped hopelessly between his gullet-pinned legs, was the hardest few inches of excitement his frail body would ever know before disappearing with a sloppy gulp. The pressure was immense, the motion so effortless that Amaeru slipped behind the forceful tongue and felt his body collapse down the monster's throat. He was squeezed on all sides, the tightness enclosing his nostrils and lips. That had been his last breath. He had spent it begging for life. Or had he spent it begging for this? *Ji-Mugral* was touching him everywhere, now. Possessive, it groped the way master Kei had on good nights of 'distraction.' Forceful, it shoved the way master Kei did when his research had been frustrating. It penetrated him in places he did not know he could feel. Suffocating silently in the dark, betrayed by his old master, it was hard for him to imagine any boon that could be worth this fate. Amaeru felt the places where *Ji-Mugral* licked him melt away. He cried his terror of disappearing into the ooze that soaked down his throat and refused his lungs any relief. But thankfully, The Great One Below knew nothing of restraint. Where Kei had toyed with his food, *Ji-Mugral* devoured it. Before Amaeru could cry again, he was gone. --- *Magnificent.* Amaeru could feel the elation. It wasn't a voice any longer, it was a thought. *You have so much to offer me. We will spread far, you and I.* Somewhere around him, Amaeru could feel coils curling. He saw nothing, not even himself, but somewhere in that nothing he had a presence. He had extremeties: poorly defined, but palpable. *And I have so much to offer you. I will craft you any form you desire. I will feed you centuries of skills and knowledge. I will take you to every world you can imagine, and you will conquer them in my name. Teach them to worship me as you do now, little avatar.* Amaeru dreamed of his form. He dreamed of his unknown tabaxi father. He thought of a jaguar, broad and strong. Beautiful yellows with dark rosettes decorating his body. For years, he had sculpted this model: the pinnacle of maleness. Fit and agile. Capable of anything his clumsy little kobold claws couldn't do. Only he didn't have kobold paws. He felt for them in the unblinking dark. His fingers touched each other, covered in velvety fur. They found arms, and legs, a furred chest and a proud feline muzzle. The dream of his father shimmered, those rosettes beginning to bleed across his fur. His vibrant yellows dulled to black. His deep brown eyes shifted to a brilliant emerald green. The black panther stared back at him in what Amaeru knew was now a reflection. It was not his father, it was him, his onyx fur a tribute to the god that created him. *Yes.* The blackness spilled away under his bare feet, revealing an altar of hewn stone beneath him. *Feed me a true fantasy.* Amaeru didn't know exactly what that thought meant. He manifested a towering ziggurat beneath him, standing alone amongst a jungle seething with life. Atop it, he was an object of worship, even if there was nobody to worship him. *No, a true fantasy. One worthy of our hunger. Here, we are unassailable. Feed me something we would be denied, anywhere but here. Here, where I can give you anything!* Amaeru's heart skipped at where his mind traveled, at the moment of that challenge. He fought instinctively to bury it, the evil thought, but *Ji-Mugral* had snatched it and flung it free. There he was, a boy again. Barely nine, his fur was a perfect image of the older black panther he kneeled in front of. The both of them were naked under the humid jungle sun. Hadn't he just been the father? No. He was always the boy, in this dream. *Yes.* Amaeru felt elation once more, staring up at the idolized creature above him. Everything he had wanted old master Kei to be. Virile, strong, and silently commanding. *You wanted more from this, boy.* His father's broad paws grabbed at Amaeru's ears and neck. They pulled at him without affection, like a thing needing to be handled rather than a beloved son. They pressed his nose firmly against the crux of the larger panther's legs, their intent already clear to the boy who had dreamed it. The sweat of a recent hunt still lingered in air atop the ziggurat. He inhaled as much as his lungs would carry. It popped in his lungs like so many fireworks. Flashed across his mind in a hundred images. Each of them, a visceral moment between father and son. Each of them, his father taking ownership of him. He kissed lovingly at the heavy sheath in front of him, wanting to belong here. Wanting to sate this perfect male's every need. Wanting to celebrate how this proud warrior was inside him, in his own blood. *Ji-Mugral* ate each of his images as quickly as Amaeru could summon them. His father had taken him in so many ways, had made the boy's mouth and tail a regular passtime. His body ached even now, in memory of events that never happened. Or if they had, they had since disappeared to his god's lust. Amaeru had dreamed of this ever since he could remember, but as they were devoured he knew he could never dream of them again. *YOU WANTED MORE FROM THIS.* It insisted. Amaeru insisted. He *did* want more. "Open your mouth." His father's voice was a delicious growl. Amaeru melted between the other feline's paws, letting his jaw hang open and his tongue lol free. His small paws pushed up to caress the purplish length of his father's draped cock, the tip hovering inches over his nose. He touched it with the sadness that he might never dream of this moment again...but that made living it even more real. "This is what you are to me." His father's growl deepened. The sound of disappointment in a toy that had broken before its time. The screeching of a distant predator echoed from the jungle, hoots of alarm and cries of despair rose around the ziggurat. In every direction, creatures were taking from one another. And here, his nameless father finally took possession of him. The sun glistened and sparkled across the hot yellow fluid jetting suddenly from the big black jaguar's member. Amaeru felt it stain and splatter over the bridge of his muzzle, soaking his brow and forcing his eyes shut. The scent dripped over him, overcoming all he knew, just as the ooze had taken him. *YES!* The greed took him, and Amaeru rose toward the gift he had been offered. His tongue lapped against the stream, tasting his father's precious mark. He let it mingle in his mouth until the acidity burned away his taste. It matted the fuzz of his chest, every drop absorbing against his skin as though his body was intended for this purpose alone. He purred and drank, his love for his father met only by the degrading scowl of the older jaguar. It did not matter that his worship was unreciprocated. It only mattered that the object was worthy. And this: he cradled the now-jutting maleness against his cheek, sucking at the base of his father's sheath and balls without subtlety. This was worth it. *You may keep this one.* The voice whispered, now distinct from himself. Amaeru could still feel the heat of piss running down his neck, still smell the male he thirsted for in every way, even as his god loomed behind him. *A gift, for the future meals you will summon for me.* Amaeru murmured his thanks, latching his mouth onto the ebbing stream to drink what he could of the fading dream. The jungle began to quiet. Its creatures, one by one, had been sated. Amaeru distantly felt as though he had played a part in that. He became aware of his god's tendrils, as expansive as the ocean, licking at all those primal desires. Desires muted by reason and empathy. Desires that needed to be brought forth through temptation if The Great One Below—if Amaeru—were to thrive. The panther knew his purpose. His fantasy disappeared to darkness once more. The shameful reek of its aftermath faded from his nostrils. He reached out, and briefly his paw touched what he knew was his father's body. *Ji-Mugral* was true to its word: this dream was intact, ready for him to summon on a whim, but spent and worthless for now. He looked over his beautiful, youthful body. No more scales. No more despicable kobold parts. Only the perfect, untouched black pelt of a panther boy. An *unfathomably* hungry panther boy.