Even now, if I ran my finger along the cave floor, it would come away sparkly.
Shnikel had been leaving for longer stretches. He was searching, was all he’d tell me. He seemed lost. I left him to it.
Left in the cell with the keys, only myself and the random curious Krampus come to rattle the cage bars and snarl at me, it wasn’t an ideal situation, but Shnikel kept insisting he was trying to find a way out of here for us. By out of here, I had no idea if he meant safely out of the mountain or Hinter. I didn’t ask because I was afraid to, if I was being perfectly honest. I was too absorbed in trying to get by now to even think about the future.
Ded had come up a few times in conversation. Shnikel said he’d gone full Krampus but had yet to track down his friend, only to find signs of the places he’d denned down long after he’d left. Ded’d yet to venture this far down the mountain. I couldn't be sure I’d recognize him now either way.
In the back of my mind, should Shnikel find him, would he ask me to try and help his friend become Elkfen again, return him to his old self? Considering how long Ded had been Krampus, I had a feeling Shnik hadn’t even bothered to ask because it was a lost cause.
Shnik still wouldn’t talk about what had happened all those nights ago, the brief chaos that had taken over the cavern to disappear just as fast. For weeks after, the Krampus huddled in tight groups, muttering about ‘Claws’. Was there a beast roaming around out there worse than a Baumbel or Krampus? For the sake of being able to fall asleep at night thinking there wasn’t, in the end I felt like I was better off not knowing.
Shnikel had left early this morning with the very familiar shovel he’d come back with one day. I knew then he’d been back to the main caves. He was either digging yet another backup of stow away compartments or excavating and exploring more of the underground tunnels he’d found. Shnikel helped me fall asleep at night murmuring old tales he was told as a fawn, of worlds connected by portals, civilizations underground. He was certain they weren’t just children’s tales anymore. From what he told me of the hidden underground caverns he’d uncovered, I believed it.
Was that what he was looking for? A way to a portal? The tales said there was a key involved. He wasn’t sure what kind of key, literal, words spoken, a spell. He’d spoken once of going back to his carriage house to try and see if he could find more information, but had stopped when I’d grown upset. He couldn't just go traipsing up in there with me in tow and I knew he wouldn't for fear of what would become of me.
I had a very real fear he was planning on leaving me soon to do just that. Stores of dried food surrounded me, fruit cake clumps and meat he’d cured and dried, candies and treats enough to rot my teeth plucked from the wilds, hidden in compartments as well as in cubbies he’d carved out of the walls. It was not lost on me, the irony that I couldn't really eat any of the healthy fruits and vegetables that grew here, most but not all off limits to me, but junk food was perfectly fine. Hinter was a little kid’s dream. I’d die of diabetes if Shnikel wasn’t bringing meat and edible plants and roots back from his adventures.
Shnikel’s love juice held absolutely no sway over how warm I was, and try as he might when I finally agreed to it, he couldn’t persuade a Krampus to come join us in our den. They were opposed to his presence but tried to approach the cell bars and do that snarling purr stuff after he’d left.
Most disturbing of the changes of late, Shnikel had caught onto this, and was trying to convince me to go to one of the less aggressive ones in offering so I didn’t starve and or freeze to death. Which was insane, because we both knew once I put myself in one of their care, they wouldn't be just handing me right back. There were female Krampus. They were heavily protected, served and were serviced by three to four males, whoever was in her main grouping. Shnikels’ obsession with them, while insightful, had me worrying why he was trying so hard to get me to agree.
Glancing at him from across the fire crackling loudly later that night, I blurted, “You want to go back. You’re trying to get rid of me.” Snuggling up better in the blankets, my gaze slipped back to the flames. “Tell me I’m wrong so I can stop feeling like the floor is about to drop out from beneath me at any moment.”
Pulling a piece of meat off the spit, he murmured, “I care for you. I’d do anything for you if it kept you safe.”
Taking the meat to sit back down, I took a bite of it, feeling ravenous, but waited until I’d finished chewing and swallowing to speak. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Setting the meat on the spit off to the side, propping it along the cave wall, pausing as he turned, cocking his head to study me, he slowly crawled his way around the fire. Coming up on me from the end of my pelt cocoon, he slowly pulled back the folds as I stuffed the rest of the piece of meat into my hand into my mouth. I chewed as I watched him grab my ankle, urging me to lie back so he could prowl up my length. The silly rumbling noises he made were all for show. The real noise that followed when I swallowed the food in my mouth and laughed, had his Elkfen happy noise erupting from his throat in loud bursts. I called it his moose call, which he hated—he was an Elkfen, part human, part Santa’s reindeer, though he refused to shift in front of me—but it also made him snort out a laugh and smile every time.
Settling himself atop me, sliding his legs between mine, nestling his cock where we both wanted it most, he slid his arms beneath my shoulders, reaching up to cup the back of my head as his head began to dip. “I can try, Christmas spirit willing, but we both know I’m just not enough for you like this, not here, maybe not ever if I can’t smuggle us out of Hinter.” Before I could argue, he kissed me. This wasn’t a gentle peck of the lips, it was hard, heady, full of hunger and need.
One of his hands slid to my hip, slipping lower to grip an ass cheek and tilt my hips. He was hot and hard, adjusting his cock so it was lined up with the mouth of my sex. I was already ready to go, wiggling to help this all along. Reaching between us, I slid the thickly furred foreskin protecting his now completely Elkfen looking cock back. Green. Elkfen dicks were a deep, forest green with reddish brown fur surrounding the underside of their testicles. A thick bulge followed along the underside of his shaft, swelling when he came. He had fat vein that curled around his cock like a candy cane stripe, red along the sides and a thick white section in the middle. It gave his penis more of an edible Christmas treat presence than functional junk. It literally vibrated when he came.
Shnikel groaned as he began to breach my channel. Unlike all the other times we had fun, taking it slow, there was something hurried to his actions. I gasped as he slowly began to pump in, to pull right back out, and then suddenly sink balls deep.
Grunting with the effort, he began thrusting into me with gusto. Sliding my hands up his wide shoulders, hooking my ankles at his lower back, I held on and ground back against him. His urgency grew, until his kisses matched the intensity.
Soon I was cresting that wave, my channel rippling around him taking him along with me. It all happened so fast my head was spinning. Continuing to slowly pump into me, Shnikel cupped my face, groaning as he stole a few more kisses. My hands slid over his, entwining our fingers.
“Do you trust me?” he asked again, for what felt like the millionth time the last few days.