Jon trudged through the bog.  The dark, smelly mud clung to his legs and made every step a struggle.  He figured his large mass wasn’t helping.  Some damned squirrel guy could probably run right across the surface.  Hell, they could probably just have climbed a tree and waited for the glacial runoff to subside.  Probably would have just turned around and chased nuts instead of trying to go around and being forced into the bog. Stupid squirrels.
Fifty more steps, seventy.  He didn’t really know why he was counting.  This bog could be a hundred miles across for all he knew, but he figured counting helped pass the time.  Jon reached up and pulled down a long branch from one of the trees. “At least I can eat, not going to starve.” he thought, stripping the leaves and the bark from the end and using the branch to help stumble his way through the mud.  He hadn’t seen anyone for the past week.  He’d even deal with one of those squirrel guys just to have someone to talk to.  Two-hundred-twenty-three total steps today.  Another branch when the other one got too stuck, another mouthful of leaves.
Around step seven-hundred-sixteen it was starting to get dark.  Bog was bad enough in the daytime, and Jon wasn’t going to risk not seeing where he was going at night.  Step seven-hundred-forty brought him to the base of one of the big trees, and Jon was finally able to take a seat on a root and get his aching feet out of the mud.  He scraped as much mud out of his fur with his walking-branch as he could.  Just going to get muddy again tomorrow but for now he’d be clean.  Well, cleaner.  Leaning back against the bole of the tree, Jon closed his eyes and was asleep almost immediately.
Jon awoke later than he intended.  It was probably already mid-morning; he must have been more tired than he thought.  He was still tired, but might as well get a start on the day.  Jon bent down and drank some of the marsh water, relieved himself, and pulled down another large limb for walking and set off. “Damn, where did I leave off last night, six hundred steps? Guess that’s a good enough number to start at.” he muttered to himself.
Around step eight-hundred-thirty is when he heard the splash far behind him.  Jon looked back, but his species didn’t have the greatest eyesight.  The trees and humid air certainly didn’t help.  The splash was probably just a broken falling limb or some particularly large fish jumping. Munching on the end of his walking stick, Jon slogged on.  Maybe it was one of those squirrel guys falling in the mud.  Jon chuckled to himself, picturing a thin little squirrel-boy sopping wet with the stinking bog water.  He wasn’t as amused thirty-eight steps later when he heard a splash again. Still seeing nothing in the bog behind him, Jon continued his trek toward the horizon.
It was getting near dark again when Jon finally heard a voice call out “Hey, big guy!” from far behind. Looking back, Jon saw a couple of large hyena guys.  He didn’t think anyone was that close yesterday.  As lonely as he was, he wasn’t exactly eager to meet up with two hyenas.  There weren’t many things that could take on a five meter ground sloth, but Jon was tired and the mud put him at a disadvantage. “Hey you guys.  Nice weather for a walk, isn’t it?” Jon shouted back, but continued to work his way toward the nearest tree.  Fifteen strides later he arrived at the tree and pulled himself up, which also gave him a better view.  The two hyenas looked like they could walk faster through the mud, though they were also wasting energy playing around.  One of them appeared to stumble and throw his full weight against the second, who fell down in a large splash of stinking water.  The first then laughed while the second sat chest deep and fumed.  From the look of the first, with his fur matted down, each had pushed the other in several times today.  Jon shook his head, drank more water and settled down to sleep.  He’d surely see more of the hyena guys in the morning if they didn’t both drown fooling around in the dark.
“Shit, look how big he is!  He’d tear us in two if he had a mind to!  There’s no way we’d take him.” one of the hyena guys said, close by.  Jon sat up with a start, almost knocking the hyena that was speaking into the bog water. The second hyena held up his hands and backed away, almost falling into the water himself. “You two idiots better explain what you meant there.  If you think I’m an easy breakfast for you, you should have tried while I was still asleep.” Jon thundered.  Both hyenas put their ears back and backed further away, trying to get out of reach of Jon’s arms.
“Now hold on mister!  We were just fooling around.  We were, heheh, kind of impressed with your package.  Honest!  Look, we don’t need to hunt we got packs of food!” hyena one said.  Hyena two helpfully lifted up his reed bag, a match to the one that hyena one carried, now soaked with water.  An unappealing smell wafted out.  “We’re just trying to get to the other side too, and to be honest I’d be glad to have someone other than Rek here to talk to.” hyena one continued.  “Oh, whatever Din!  I’m not sure you ever shut up.  I swear you manage to talk while you sleep!” Rek replied, his tongue lolling out.  Jon relaxed a bit, now that the hyenas were trading jokes back and forth.
“Sorry about calling you ‘idiots’, guys.  You just startled me.  However, you still need to explain how you couldn’t ‘take me’ if you weren’t looking for a fight.” Jon said.  Din looked up, and his ears came forward. “Oh, no we didn’t mean it like that.  It’s just that, dammit you’re a big guy and all.  You haven’t ever seen another man’s cock and said ‘whoa!’?” Din replied.  Jon shifted a bit on his tree root, glancing down at his cock.  “Well as big as you are, maybe not.  Not going to see anything bigger than that club between your legs. When we said we couldn’t take you, we just meant there’s no way you’d fit in either of us. Hey, can I touch it?” Din blurted out.
“What?  Why would you want to touch it?” Jon asked, trying not to think about dicks.  He was especially trying not to think about his own dick that was starting to fill out.
“It’s just that we’re kind of fascinated, mister.  Can’t imagine how much bigger it gets when you’re hard!” Din replied. Rek chimed in, “Swear that we’ll be gentle!”
He considered for a moment.  Without the two hyenas even touching his cock, he was half-hard and getting harder.  His cock was starting to bob with his heartbeat, which was faster than he’d expected.  Another minute of thinking about not thinking about dicks and he’d be totally hard anyhow, so he nodded at the hyenas.  Both hyenas were entranced with his thickening meat, and Din reached out and gripped the base of Jon’s cock.  Din’s paw couldn’t even get halfway around Jon’s member, and he started gliding his paw pads up until he was rubbing the tip that was peeking out of Jon’s foreskin. Rek’s own cock was fully hard, and he absently tugged at his balls as he watched Din handling the massive dick.
Jon moaned quietly and closed his eyes.  He’d been alone for so long.  He hadn’t seen another of his species since he was a child.  As an adult, he’d met adult males and females of other species but there was never any attraction.  He’d taken care of his needs with his own paws, but he was simply speechless at how different another person’s hands felt on his cock.  Jon opened his eyes again, and Din now had both paws on Jon’s dick.  Rek had approached and was gently fondling the megatherium’s hefty ballsack.  Jon was so appreciative of the attention; he reached out and put his arms around each of the hyena’s scruffy necks.  He just meant it to be an affectionate gesture, but the hyena guys took it as a cue and both sank to their knees between Jon’s legs and began lavishing his cock with swipes of their rough tongues.  Jon’s claws contracted in reaction as the tiny barbs on the hyena’s tongues moved across his foreskin.  It felt so good, this amazing pleasure right on the edge of being painful, that it brought tears to his eyes.
Din looked up and saw Jon weeping. “Mister, are you ok?  Sorry, we got carried away.  We didn’t mean to hurt you.  Rek look what you did!” Din said.  Rek stopped his licking, his tongue sticking from his mouth in his confusion.  “No, I’m fine, better than fine.” Jon said, “Come here.” and pulled both hyenas up to hug them.  Rek and Din stood, their hard dicks poking the sloth’s huge belly and their faces buried in his shaggy chest fur. They were both surprised at the big guy’s reaction, since they had been playing like this with each other since their teens. “It’s just that nobody has ever touched me, and I kind of forgot that I wanted to be touched. If you guys still want to, I’d love if you’d continue.” Jon said.  He pulled the hyenas out of his chest fur, and both Din and Rek smiled, their ears coming forward. “You bet.” Din said, and Rek nodded.  Both hyenas sank back to their rear haunches and resumed playfully licking Jon’s throbbing slothhood.
Jon leaned back a little to let the hyenas have some room, and braced himself by stretching his big arms into the branches above.  Din was lapping at Jon’s cockhead, his tongue teasing the edges of Jon’s foreskin and tasting the drops of precum that were leaking from Jon’s tip.  Rek seemed fascinated with the large vein on the underside of Jon’s cock, and was almost tracing its path with his rough tongue.  His hands were occupied too: one was back to fondling Jon’s balls and the other was stroking Din’s hard dick.  On one of his tongue’s trips back down Jon’s cock he continued past the base and took a few swipes at Jon’s sack. “Wow, mister!  Your balls are huge!  They’re bigger than the eggs of those big birds down on the plains!” Rek exclaimed, his tongue licking the skin between the orbs.  Jon laughed in spite of himself, “Yep, I suppose.”
The hyenas continued their oral worship of Jon’s package for a while, and Jon could feel his climax building.  He closed his eyes and drifted.  He felt like his entire being was only held down by the paws and tongues of his new friends, and he could feel each stroke and lick moving him closer to the brink. “Hey guys, uhh… whew, I mean I’m going to pop soon!” Jon cautioned the hyenas.  Din made a hooting laugh and just continued to tease Jon’s head and foreskin; his only concession to the warning was opening his mouth wider.  Jon grabbed the branches harder and surrendered to the pleasure.  His cum shot out, overfilling Din’s muzzle and dripping down onto Rek’s face and head.  Din closed his mouth and swallowed, but the subsequent spurts of cum went beyond his ability to keep up.  As the torrent subsided, Jon returned to the moment and looked down at two very sticky hyenas.  He grinned at them and they both shook themselves, spraying Jon’s cum all over and laughing.
Jon unhooked his claws from the branches above and again pulled the two hyenas into a hug.  Both guys still sported aching erections, and as Jon held them he realized he couldn’t really handle their cocks.  Neither was overly small, but Jon’s huge claws made closing his paws impossible.  He’d just have to improvise.  Jon looked Rek in the face and said “Trust me, I have an idea.”  He didn’t wait for Rek’s response, but reached out and lifted the surprised hyena into the air.  Din backed away, a worried look on his face that increased as Jon lifted Rek close to his huge mouth. “Hey!  What are you doing, mister?  I thought you guys didn’t eat meat!” Din shouted.  Jon laughed and said “Nope, I don’t eat meat usually.  I sure can lick it though!” Jon’s huge tongue stuck out and nestled against Rek’s bobbing cock.  Truth be told, Jon’s tongue was so big that one lick from him went all the way from Rek’s asshole, across his balls, and to the tip of his dick.  Rek shivered in pleasure, not only from the attention but at the unique sensation of being held confined in the air while this giant sloth serviced him.  Jon easily held the quivering hyena suspended while slobbering on Rek’s cock until Rek gave a curious hoot and grunted, and shot his load into Jon’s waiting mouth.
He set Rek down on shaking legs, and Din was hopping from foot to foot in anticipation of the same treatment.  A grin split Jon’s huge face as he lifted the second hyena into the air and began swiping his tongue across Din’s asshole.  As big as Jon’s tongue was, the tip was marvelously dexterous.  It normally would let Jon separate the small leaves from the end of tree branches, but now allowed Jon to penetrate past Din’s tight sphincter.  Din started to hoot and grunt.  “Aw, Rek!” he called “He’s actually got his tongue inside me!  Ho, mister that feels great!”  Jon continued to slide the tip of his tongue in and out of the hyena’s passage, watching Din’s cock bob at every in and out motion.  Din was leaking so much precum that his cock shone wetly in the morning light.  Rek was able to reach up and start stroking his buddy’s dick, and it didn’t take more than a few strokes before Din succumbed to the combined assault of hand on cock and tongue stretching his ass.  Din convulsed and hot semen splattered across Rek’s face, and Jon could feel Din’s asshole quivering around his tongue.  He set the second hyena down next to Rek, who was trying to lick Din’s cum from his muzzle.
The sloth leaned back against the tree and watched as the hyenas worked on cleaning cum out of their own fur and each other’s’.  He was amazed at how peaceful he felt.  What was probably a daily activity for the two hyenas was an extraordinary event to Jon, and he was grateful beyond words.  Not for the act alone, but for reaching out to him.  He resolved right then that if the hyenas wanted to travel with him he’d gladly accept their friendship.  When they were done, Rek and Din started rummaging through their bags and sat down to eat.  Jon didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t smell appealing at all.  Didn’t matter to him, he broke a huge limb off the tree overhead and started chewing. “Didn’t your meat get ruined with all the water soaking your bags?” Jon asked.  Din smiled and shrugged, “Nah, mister.  I’m not sure Rek and I have ever come across something that was too dead to eat.  You got to be grateful for every little thing in this world.  You never know when the next good thing will come along.”
“You got that right, Din.” Jon replied, smiling.
When everyone had got some strength back, Jon stood up and waded out into the muddy bog.  He turned and with an uncertain look in his eyes asked, “You guys mind if we stick together?”  Both hyenas hopped up and grabbed their bags, nodding and laughing. “Sure mister.  As I said before, it’d be nice to have someone around who doesn’t talk all the time like Rek.” Din said, receiving an irritated look from his buddy.  Relieved, Jon and the hyenas set off through the mud towards the horizon, the sloth again leaning on his walking stick and chewing the end.  Oddly, he didn’t even think of counting his footsteps now and probably couldn’t recall what number he was at.  As they walked, the hyena guys joked around and would still push each other into the mud.  Jon just concentrated on pulling his leg out of the bog, taking a stride and putting it back into the sinking mud.  Rek and Din never sank very far in, but Jon would pull them out of the mud and set them back on their feet whenever the hyenas toppled over.  Din talked almost constantly, asking Jon about things he had seen and telling about growing up with the pack.  Jon thought it was good to feel needed, like he belonged.
As the afternoon wore on, Rek and Din were starting to stumble along. “Hey guys, are you alright?” Jon asked.  Din looked up, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and said “Yeah mister.  We’re both tired, since we walked most of the night to catch up to you.  Hyenas aren’t really daytime folks.  Do you think we could take a rest?”  Jon nodded and saw another good tree about thirty strides away.  He started off that direction with the hyenas slowly following.  He kept looking back to make sure they were all right, and halfway to the tree he found he was stuck in the mud. “Rek!  Din!  Hold up.  I’m stuck.” Jon shouted.  He looked overhead for branches he could grab on to but none of the trees were close enough.  Rek and Din were standing on their relatively solid section of bog, looking concerned. “Can you two see if you can walk around the edge of this mud hole and find me another big branch?  I might be able to work my way out with that.” Jon called.  Rek and Din set off and returned quickly with a branch, but Jon saw immediately that it was nowhere near big enough to work.  “No, I need a bigger one.” Jon said. “Sorry mister.” Din replied, “All the really big ones are either rotten or still on the trees and me and Rek aren’t strong enough to break them off.  Not strong like you are.”
Jon started feeling the edge of panic.  He kept trying to find that last solid spot of ground, but everywhere he felt was just more soft mud that clung to him and made him feel heavier.  Dammit! Why wasn’t he paying attention to where he was going?  He could feel that he was sinking more into the mud as he moved around, but how was he going to get out if he didn’t move?  “Rek?  Din?  I want you guys to be very careful.  You don’t sink into the mud like I do, you should be able to come out almost to me and still not get stuck.  Keep checking the mud and when it stops having ground beneath it, stop and I’ll see how close it is.” Jon called out.  Din nodded and Rek flattened his ears and swallowed.  The hyenas got about to an arms-length of Jon before they hit the mud hole, and Jon’s panic increased.  Even stretching, they couldn’t get ahold of his claws and he couldn’t quite get purchase in the solid ground they stood on.  Both Rek and Din were pacing now, whining and hooting.  The stretching also hadn’t helped his condition; Jon was now waist deep in the mud and getting tired.  The sun was almost down.
“Rek, Din, I’m stuck, really stuck. I’m going to try and calm down and keep from sinking further, and I want you to try and get some sleep.  When you got some rest you can go and maybe have better luck finding a branch big enough so I can get some leverage.  I don’t want you to worry; I’ll be fine through the night.” Jon said.  Din looked like he wanted to say something, but he nodded again and moved back to the previous tree with Rek.  The two hyenas kept looking over at the trapped sloth, and Jon did his best to calm himself and rest up.
Jon awoke in the grey light, and Rek and Din were nowhere around.  Their packs were still sitting on the tree roots where they slept.  At least he hadn’t sunk any further, but his legs were stiff from not moving.  A leafy splash alerted him to the hyenas’ return.  Between them they carried a good sized branch, and a bunch of smaller ones. “We thought you could use some food, buddy,” Din said, “and we hope this one does the job because it’s the best one we’ve found.”  Rek nodded and handed the smaller branches one at a time into Jon’s waiting claws and maw.  When he was done eating, the hyenas handed him the large branch and stood back from the edge of the mud hole.  Jon planted the end on the solid patch and flexed his arms, trying to lever himself out of the hole.  However, the angle was all wrong.
Din had been watching Jon try to lever himself out, and suddenly he hopped and ran over to the edge. “Hey mister, I got an idea!  What if you hold one end of the branch, and Rek and I pull on the other end?  I know you weigh a lot but maybe with just a little help you can get out!”  Jon was doubtful, but he nodded and extended the branch.  Rek and Din both grasped the end and dug their hindpaws into the muddy ground and started to strain.  Jon flexed and concentrated on moving his legs towards safety.  The hyenas didn’t need to move forward, they just needed to be able to brace strong enough for Jon to pull himself out.  Bit by bit Jon was moving to safety, but he was also sinking further with the movement.  The mud was up to his chest and he started to feel panic chipping away at his reason again.  He was breathing hard now, and he let go of the branch to try digging his foreclaws into the ground.  They sank deep into it and Jon heaved and strained, pulling chunks out of the solid ground.  Rek and Din were shouting encouragement and Jon doubled his efforts. He was moving closer to where the edge used to be but his clawing was causing that edge to retreat faster than he advanced, and the mud was up to his armpits now.
Jon’s fear was overriding all sense.  The mud was all around his chest, and he was pulling in deep lungfuls of air to fuel his exertion.  Even if he stopped struggling to get out, just breathing might be enough to pull him under. The hyenas could only watch now, watch Jon’s eyes rolling and showing their whites. “Mister, stop!  Please stop!” Din shouted, and Jon could see in his panic that the hyenas were approaching the mudpit to see if they could help.  They couldn’t know that the formerly safe edge was now a deathtrap, a slide created by Jon’s huge claws that would dump them into the hole. Jon froze and shouted “STOP!” as Rek and Din came to the edge and slid hip deep into the mud themselves.  Sense slammed into him again.  Blowing mud away from his mouth, he grasped and lifted each cowering hyena in turn in a terrible echo of their play earlier, setting them back onto the solid ground before they could sink.  With that, he ceased struggling.  The mud was at his chin.  He wasn’t going anywhere, anymore.
Din was pacing and whining and Rek was just sitting numb, just staring at Jon’s head above the surface.  Jon finally got his breathing under control and said, “Look you two.  I’m not getting out of here.  I’m done.  I just got one favor to ask and it is an awful one: can you stay with me, until I go?  I don’t want to die here alone.  It won’t be so bad, dying with friends by my side.  As you said, you got to be grateful for every little thing, and I am.”  Din nodded and swallowed noisily with emotion.  Rek slid over to the edge and took Jon’s right paw in his own. “Mister, don’t worry.  We’ll stay with you…uh, hey we never asked your name.  Doesn’t seem right you going and the last people who seen you not knowing your name.” Rek said.  “Jon, pleased to meet you.” the big sloth replied, lightly shaking Rek’s forepaw and sinking just a little more into the bog.  Din came over too, and took Jon’s other paw.  Din wiped his nose in his arm fur and said “Hold on a little longer, Jon.  Its almost over.” They sat quietly, listening to Jon’s breathing coming harder throughout the day.
As night fell, and the stars crossed the sky Din and Rek heard only their own breathing and knew that Jon had slipped away.

Epilogue
It was agony, like a hundred bees stinging him or a thousand nettles catching in his pelt.  Jon screamed.  He was colder than he had ever been. He felt warm paws on his chest as the pain washed over him.  Some kind of female bear leaned over him, shining a light in his eyes.  “Hold on big guy.  Hold on a little longer. Its almost over.  You’re safe, you’re safe.” she said.  She took the light away, and Jon could see more strange lights above him that didn’t flicker like fires or stars. The pain was subsiding every moment, and Jon’s breathing took on a normal rhythm. The bear had moved away out of sight, and this cave that housed them was so strange.  The walls were shiny like glacier ice, but white instead of blue and it was too warm for ice.
The bear came back into sight, and Jon could focus better on her face.  “Hi big guy, can you tell me your name?  Are you feeling better?  The process hurts so much, but it’s the only way.  We’re sorry.” she said. “I’m sorry ma’am, I know I have a name but I can’t seem to remember right now.” Jon said, and swallowed noisily. “Yes, I’m getting better.  Where am I?  I thought I left the glaciers behind.”
“I’m Doctor Merridale.  You are in the Smithsonian Institute’s Natural History Museum, in the specimen lab.  We think your name is Jon.” Doctor Merridale replied. Jon shook his head, since most of those words meant nothing to him.  Merridale smiled and patted his huge paws where they sat crossed on his chest. “Sorry, I know it can be very confusing.  There’s no way to make this easier so here goes: you are sitting in a cave many years in your future.  You know what ‘thousand’ means?  It is seventy-five thousand years later.  Seventy-five thousand years after you…died.”  Jon stared at her, still confused.  Merridale stood up, crossed the room and returned with a pitcher of water for Jon.  She helped him sit up, as much as someone a quarter of Jon’s size could, and pulled over something a bit like a tree stump that glided over the shiny cave floor for her to sit on.
“This is a place where people today go to see what the world was like in the past.  We used to dig up people’s bones, and re-assemble them with wires, and cover them with fake fur so people today could see what people back then used to look like.  Several years ago, we developed a means to revive people that we found who were well-preserved.  If you had been eaten by smilodons or had drowned in a river we wouldn’t be here talking.  When you died in the peat bog, the peat preserved you.  We found you, and revived you so that if you wish you can work here in the museum and let us understand your species and how life was back then.  You don’t need to decide right now, but I hope that you will accept our offer.  We will pay you…sorry, we will give you food and water and a place to live.  If you think you can walk, I can take you to your cave.”
Jon nodded, at a loss for words.  He still didn’t really understand, but the smiling bear lady seemed nice enough.  He stood and followed her out of the cave through a seam that opened in the wall when she touched it.  Instead of open air, it was another longer cave made of the same glacier ice.  Thirty-one sloth-sized steps down the passage and they entered another roomy chamber.  Trees lined the walls (“inside a cave?”) and a small pond sparkled in the fireless lights. “Do you think you’ll be ok if I leave you alone for a little? I need to clean up the lab, and as stupid as it sounds you probably need some sleep.” Merridale said.  “Seventy-five thousand years, you would have thought you slept enough.  The revival takes a lot out of you though, so just rest here and I’ll be back in a bit.”  Merridale exited the chamber back to the long cave and Jon sat down on the soft forest floor.
As he looked around the room, something caught his eye.  A piece of slate attached to the shiny wall of the cave.  It had some writing scratched into it, and some carvings on either side of the writing.  Looking closer, the carvings looked a bit like two stylized hyenas.  The scratches spelled out letters, ‘J o n.  G r a t e f u l.’