This is a short work of erotic fiction containing furry, or anthropomorphic, characters, which are animals that either demonstrate human intelligence or walk on two legs, for the purposes of these tales. It is a thriving and growing fandom in which creators are prevalent in art and writing especially.
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Healing
To be bound by such mortal coils... That was the thing that brought a man down and down and down and he bowed his head against the storm, tucked away in his tent, although the nylon swayed and fought to be free of the tent poles, flapping with such ferocity that he wondered that he had thought at all that he had picked out a calm and quiet spot for his shelter at all.
Just a few days in the woods with the boughs of pine trees and a burbling creek to keep him company. That was all he'd been looking for and, truly, sometimes that could be enough to get away from it all, to forget the manner of life that had become a reality. He drifted into a state of half-being, something that was not quite a meditation but, in another sense, could not be considered living either.
What was living? It didn't seem so... Not with what was going on in his life, death and sickness sinking their claws into him, taking putrid chunks out of his soul. The demons scarpered and clamoured to have their share and he let them if only to feel like he was doing something, something good for the betterment of all. Yet the truth of the matter was that he could do nothing and, well, that's all there was to it.
Sometimes, he had to forget that though and just listen to the rain. If all he heard was the rain pattering down on the leaves, the wind in the trees, everything would be okay, if only for a time. He could focus on that to the exclusion of all else and sink into his moment of being, even if he did not want to contemplate or reflect.
Slowly, the rain washed him away, trickling him down rocks and into the babbling brook that had soothed him so many times before. It was all just as it was meant to be as he breathed slowly and evenly, slipping down and down and down, the rocks and the earth a part of him, peaty earth filling his nostrils as the storm seemed to die off just a touch. That was nice. That was something he could focus on, something that made it so he didn't have to think about anything else, being as he was, right then and there.
"That is not how it is meant to be, little one."
In an instant, his eyes snapped open and he started back, a lantern jamming into the small of his back, but nothing could have prepared him for the creature standing before him. Not a human, although she had used human speech, the animal that made herself known could only be classed as a...no. No, that could not be true, he could not even say it to himself, rubbing his hand over the back of his eyes, her pink feathers... No... He couldn't let his heart leap but the feeling was there still, breath trapped in his throat and tightening around his windpipe.
Clicking the edges of her large, yellow beak lightly together, she bowed her head softly as if she was trying to seem less intimidating to him, as much as she towered.
"What..." He blinked, unable to even finish the question as the words died on his lips. "What... Why? How?"
Single syllable questions would have to do as he stared at the gryphon before him, pink feathers melting into a softer, lighter shade of fur, tail curling back and forth with a longer, less leonine, tuft of hair trailing from the tip. Her laugh was musical and the gryphoness could not possibly have been confused for anything other than what or who she was, murmuring to him as the wind died down, stilling the tent with her quiet advance.
"It's okay, little one. No one will ever hurt you again."
