But he had another reason…
The brief glimpse of Adriel's nude form had stirred something within him, something pleasurable and yet uncomfortable. He stayed where he was.
Adriel splashed the water in front of her.
"Oh, come on in! You'll like it! Really!" But her pet made no move to join her. "Looks like I'm going to have to drag you in," she muttered and kicked her way closer to shore.
When she reached the shallows again, she stood and waded toward the bank. Her skin was white and smooth and glistened wetly. Water ran from her hair over her rounded, budding, pink-tipped breasts, down across her abdomen to the red-gold fuzz that covered her pubes.
The same pleasurable something washed over the tery again as he watched her, a warm something that seemed to be centered in his groin. She was completely out of the water now and climbing the bank in his direction. The warmth in his groin increased and the erratic fleshy part of him that usually hung awkwardly between his legs became large and stiff. His breathing was rapid as he tried to look away, but he could not.
This was wrong. He wanted to leap upon her, paw her, press the hungry distended flesh into her…
Wrong!
Adriel leaned over the bushes and extended her hand to him.
"Come on," she said in a coaxing voice. The sunlight caught the myriad droplets of water that had formed on her bobbing breasts, and the cooling effect of a gentle breeze had caused her nipples to harden and stand erect. "I won't let you drown."
With an abrupt motion he wrenched himself around and tore headlong back into the trees. He kept running, concentrating all his physical effort on moving his four limbs as fast as his muscles would allow. Leaping over fallen branches and around earth-sunk boulders, he raced past Tlad's empty dwelling, across the field that bordered the shimmering fear, and didn't stop until he stood in the ruined clearing that had once been his home.
Exhausted, he slumped on the rubble-choked mouth of the cave that held his parents' remains and wished for them to rise and live and comfort him. Life had been so much simpler then. His mother had had all the answers. She would explain this blazing turmoil within him, explain why a tery should have such an unnatural desire for a human.
He waited, but his mother did not rise.
As his strength returned, so did memory of Adriel's glistening naked form, reaching for him. He felt the warmth return, felt himself grow erect again. Enclosing the stiff, enlarged member within both of his fists, he began moving them up and down until a spurting spasm brought a relief of sorts.
— X-
The tery returned to the psi-folk camp in the late afternoon. He did not approach Adriel's hut immediately as he would normally do, but wandered the perimeter, wondering if she knew what had happened down by the bank.
Guilt and fear gnawed at him. What if she guessed his feelings? She'd be shocked and repulsed. He couldn't bear the thought of losing her.
Near the center of camp he saw a cart loaded with pottery. Tlad’s. He searched for the man and found him squatting beside Komak in the shade, dickering.
"Then it's settled," Tlad was saying. "A hindquarter of ma for the load. And fresh — none of this dried stuff."
"Agreed," Komak nodded. "You drive a hard bargain, Tlad. You'd never get such a price if we hadn't broken so much pottery in that forced march from the old campsite." His eyes narrowed. "But what I want to know is how you found us? We've come a long way since we last saw you."
"I've lived in the forests longer than you. I have ways."
"I'm sure you do. But we waded down a stream most of the way. We left no trail."
Tlad shrugged. "I have ways."
Komak broke off further interrogation when he caught sight of the tery loping toward them.
"Looking for Adriel?" he said, rising and affectionately roughing up the fur at the back of the tery's neck. "She told me about you — afraid of the water, are you? Well, we're all afraid of something, I guess."
Afraid of the water. So that was how Adriel had seen it. Relief flooded him.
"Where is Adriel, anyway?" Tlad asked. "I want to ask her a few things about this pet of hers."
The tery looked around to find Tlad staring at him. The man's penetrating gaze made him uncomfortable. He looked away.
"Good question," said Komak, his lips tightening into a grimace of distaste. "Off walking somewhere with Dennel. Don't know what she sees in him."
"You don't think too much of him, I take it?"
"I like him not at all and trust him even less. But that is a problem between Adriel and myself. As for you — we have a couple of hunting parties out now. Should be back with a ma or two by sundown."
Tlad nodded. "I saw one of them setting up on my way here. Think they'd mind if I watched?"
"Just stay well back and quiet and out of sight," Komak warned and strolled away.
The tery was about to follow Komak in search of Adriel but was stopped by Tlad's voice.
"They tell me you're a hero around here now, eh? Coming up in the world. Komak says Adriel's even managed to teach you some words. Isn't that interesting?"
He squatted before the tery, putting their eyes on the same level. The tery held his gaze this time.
"Tell me, tery," he said. "Are you really a dumb animal? Or are you playing games with these folk?"
The questions made the tery uneasy. Tlad seemed to know more than he should. He felt his gaze wavering. He growled and turned away.
The man rose and mumbled a few unintelligible words, then walked off toward the trees. Looking over his shoulder as he moved, he slapped his thigh once and called to the tery.
"With me!"
The tery hesitated, unused to being commanded to do anything, and not liking it. But Tlad intrigued him. And since he lacked anything better to do at the time, he drew up alongside him and kept pace. He felt strangely drawn to the man. The fact that he had been instrumental in saving his life was an important factor, but he felt a kinship with Tlad, a certain undefined sharing of a common ground.
They moved side by side through the forest until Tlad suddenly stopped and motioned the tery to stay where he was. Alone, he moved cautiously and silently ahead, briefly disappearing into the undergrowth, then returning with a satisfied smile.
"Want to see how your friends the Talents hunt?"
The tery almost answered, but stopped himself just as the words reached his lips.
"Follow me," Tlad said. "And be quiet."
Without a word he chose a tree and began to climb. The tery followed. When they were five or six man-heights up the trunk, Tlad made himself comfortable on a limb. Shielding his eyes against the late afternoon sun to his right, he peered ahead in the direction they had been traveling.
The tery followed the line of his gaze. When he spotted the object of all this attention, he nestled into the corner of the branch just below Tlad's and set up his own watch.
In a small clearing, eight Talents, five men and three women, stood in a semicircle with arms linked. No one moved, no one made a sound. They stood that way for what seemed an interminable period. The tery began to get restless. What was this all about?
"Be patient," Tlad whispered. "It will happen soon."
The man continued to watch in silent fascination.
Despite Tlad's advice, the tery was about to climb back down to the ground and find something more interesting to do when he noticed a movement in the brush surrounding the clearing. The head of a large buck ma appeared. The tery froze and stared.
Slowly, hesitantly, the ma moved forward until it had fully emerged from the brush. Mas were vegetarians — grazers and leaf-nibblers — and their only defense against the carnivores that craved their flesh was speed. A graceful neck held the creature's snouted head on a level with those of the Talents who faced it; a sleek, short-furred body tapered down to four delicate legs. Mas were skittish and bolted at the slightest provocation, which made the sight of one standing not five paces from a group of humans almost incomprehensible… unless the Talents were exerting some sort of influence over the beast.