Ambrosia: Chapter One

Prologue

The auction house. A center piece of the furry world which was in existence. Temptation drove most to sell, bargain, enslave, and free the furries who seemed lower than life around them. It was not optional whether the slave can become a slave, and it was not optional for a master to become a master.

They were chosen by the rank; royalty and full blood over impure. Half breeds were an exception, since they could be a Royal halfbreed at birth.

The auction house revolved around these rules. If a furry was full blooded, Royal, or a half blood, they were permitted to bid. If they were impure, they were captured and put for sale, or not allowed in (if they had no owners).

Such impurities included a jaguar, who was an associate of the extensive family. These were overly popular cats, which was why they weren't allowed to enter and bid, unless they were included in a royal family. At every jaguar's fifteenth birthday, they were enslaved. This was because the jaguar was most valuable at teenage years. The mind was still maturing, and that was when a slave owner could teach the jaguar to behave properly to their liking. Some were told to go into concealment but were later found and punished for it.

An ordinary child was about to have his life changed.

And it all would start as an ordinary day that would end in destiny.

.o

"You're wanted on the telephone!"

He had just finished skimming a diminutive document on old, yellowed parchment from 7439 Millson's Avenue. That was his sister-in-law's house; an anile, crusty slab of wood. Apparently the aged furball wanted him to be sent into hiding, but he had no reason to. No troubles at home would force him from his place of peace and privacy.

Life at the NAFS was the greatest, especially when he was surrounded by beautiful felines. The 'F' in NAFS stood for felines, and it didn't matter what gender they were. He had his mate, and she had him. He wasn't a horned furry who desired sex or love--neither suited him. He preferred his mate over all the females he could have chosen from.

It was a feeling that drove him to finding a partner to bond for life with. The feeling of loneliness pressured him to search for a mate. He didn't agree with it, but it led him anyways.

Wrinkling up the piece of scrap, he threw it in a nearby bin. He always seemed to loathe the sister, anyways. She nagged him all the time: taking his lunches, stealing his berth, wasting time on his flute, breaking that woodwind instrument; anything to get him pissed. The history of his past was what caused his sister to tease him. Being the highest of his classmates, she called him a nerd for being intelligent. She had no brains.

His eyes caught a glimpse of a group of felines as he passed the opening to the pool. He saw his lover with them. He approached the entrance, but was reminded of the telephone call. He stepped back without checking behind him. His backside smashed into a statue, which he instinctively latched onto to get a grip of himself. The apple that the statue held fell from the stone hands and crumbled on the ground. His humiliating clumsiness gained the attention of the females.

Good job! You got aroused by your mate and it made you clumsy. Now everyone here is looking at you, wondering how many drinks you've had. Nice! Just wonderful.

Bounding to the telephone in the National Academy of Feline Scientists, he speedily picked it up.

"Hey!" He saluted into the phone and expected an response. When there was none, he tried again.

"Hello? Hello? Who's calling? Answer me!" He knew it was his sister-in-law, but she was probably playing some joke on him. He knew another way to get her to converse. She always fell into the trap.

"If you don't answer, I'll brutally shave your fur!"

When he didn't hear anything, he started to fidget. Something was wrong. She always responded to that trick. But was there something occurring at the residence? Maybe she was trying to bait him out of the academy with some fake life-threatening silence.

He didn't want to take any chances. Though he hated her and despised her even more for her taunting him, he felt the need to investigate the situation. If his sibling was playing games, he'd leave her forever. If she wasn't, then she'd better hope he would help her.

Hanging up, he dashed to his dorm to gather his things to prepare the trip.

.o

Gloomy clouds hung over the shack. They glared angrily at the jaguar without any other emotion in their swirling wisps. The air was heavy and damp, thunderous bangs emitted from the house. The leopard shuddered. It was always like this. A sullen place. It was the emotionless part of his sister that merged with the shelter.

Entering through the doorway, he heard shuffling. Absinthe optics glanced around. It was the same as when he abandoned his sister. The place was desiccate and chipped, unattended to in years. The film of dust that coated the area seemed to have been disturbed since a clean spot shaped like a body on the wall was noticeable. This was intriguing for him, the scientist buried under walls inside him emerging boldly. He rushed to the spot.

The shape showed signs of struggling. It could have been from the intoxicated men that she brought over to openly mate. The sister in question was a whore, and he admitted it quite loudly when she usually passed his form. Blood trailed from the form, smeared on the wall. It went in a streak to a set of doors that laid closed.

The doors, he noted, were not there the last time he visited. She probably put them there for a new guest room. The white painted wood had been scarred with gashes, some passing straight through the two inch thick door. Blood coated the doors, releasing a foul odor.

The jaguar poked a furry head through the door, seeing a shady chassis standing near the windowpane. It carried a jagged cane, collecting dust motes as it gazed at the land outside. A dark tail swept the ground, covered mostly by a leather trench coat of monochromatic colors. The jaguar identified the man as a stray.

"Hey, are you one of the strays?" He spat rudely, obviously not caring for the man's emotions.

"Yes, I am.." A deep, rich reply countered. It'd yet to turn around.

The large feline stepped in. "Have you seen my sister? An ugly hag, about ye high?"

"Your sister has gone out.. I believe it was early yesterday morning."

"Wait, what?"

"She said she wouldn't be returning for a bit of time.." He raised a scaly finger. The jaguar could faintly see a worn out hue of raw sienna.

"Huh?"

"She won't be coming back...at all." He began to turn around, using the cane to steady himself. It was a simple dragon, not dramatically fearsome.

It didn't add up together for the feline. His sister despised dragons. Any type of reptile brought into the house would have been skinned and its scales would be put on auction. So why was there one in the shelter at that moment?

"So it's just you..." He began to approach the jaguar, who, in return, stepped back.

"You are all alone now," Clammy hands reached out, closing in on his arm. The struggle led the claws to dig into his arm, lodged firmly into the flesh. He cried out lightly, pain coursing through his entire arm.

"Get away from me!"

A toothy grin formed on the dragon's maw, the scent of dead carcass blowing onto the jaguar's face. With a quick motion, the reptile looped a string around him. It wasn't even an inch thick, secured with a blue seal.

The scientist self of him shrunk back into his mind, leaving him to fend for himself. The scientist was a split personality of him that he developed out of loneliness.

He strained against the lines, but the seal prevented the snapping of the line. The dragon smiled almost gently at the attempts to break free. A mocking grin full of dagger fangs and faux sympathy.

"I've been waiting so long for this moment."

The fool dragged the jaguar out of the corridor and into another door. The door was one that he didn't recognize, but they slipped right through it and into another long hallway. It was a tight squeeze, but the traveling was successful, and the jaguar found himself in the back of a stage.

Chapter One

The cage groaned against a fury of golden and black. The colors of black, green, and yellow startled the skittish jaguar into panic. An unfamiliar territory meant struggling to adapt. This was not a settling place to be in. Darkness covered every inch of the place, save for a lamp highlighting the top of the back stage.

A swift blow to the side of him ceased the twitches.

Stacks of paper layered a dark ebony desk at the back, near a door where the seller was supposed to enter through. Golden pens with engraved 'SS's were used to write on the contract. This contract was strictly followed. If the owner was to sign the paper, that was an agreement stating they'd never see their slave again...that there would be no reconsidering during the auctions.

The jaguar had been assigned to a paper, too.

Dark green eyes peered steadily from shadows casted by bars of steel, captivated by the trading of felines like himself. The proud silk of an Lebanese Royal Leopard Fisher gleamed with a healthy glow as a master handed a thick rope from one to another. They walked off as if meant to be with each other.

In these auctions, a master or mistress could only buy a slave or maid if the connection to both could be felt. Some people would try to buy the pets for their visual appearance, but fate would make them lose.

No announcer was ever present on the clean, waxed stages. It was the fastest way to get a quick buck or two. Once the owner of the pet thought that the pet was of no use—worn out—they'd sell the pet as quick as like tossing a human vibrator back into the drawer.

He was in line next. The scent of alcoholic breaths panted in the air, mixed with arousal and greed. The jaguar could smell it all. He hated it.

The feline looked up into the empty, watching a dust mote float in the air near one of the harsh overhead lights. He envied that mote; its freedom to roam unnoticed wherever the air blew it. The jaguar longed to be that mote.

The flip of the lid on his cage was the moment of freedom he had before restrained in thick barbed wire. He hopped out of the cage and onto his four legs, even though he could hoist himself onto two hind legs. The floor was bearable, at least. The glare from overhead lights showed his pelt more than he preferred, revealing tense muscles as he took his place on center stage. The barbs cut into his throat as his owner dragged him a centimeter back.

Scanning the room, he took notice of several oddities of the room. Satyrs and lynx, hounds and felines. Any type of animal he could imagine was in that room. However, his eye couldn't detect any Royals standing out in the crowd, a disappointment fell upon him.

Hands eagerly shot up into the air holding sticks with numbers on them. A silent auction is what they called it, though it wasn't really silent. Every day they'd see jaguars, and every day it'd get more violent in the war to bid on one.

That trickle that the jaguar felt, he normally brushed it aside. It was, always, just a phantom of his imagination to be brushed away in everyday life. That feeling of his head being slowly pressed against together by invisible hands.

A tawny pelt gleamed from the left of his eyes, and he turned to it. The world slowed down for a nanosecond, the screams of "Nine hundred! Ten thousand!" were drained away.

A mere halfbreed sat on the back of a monstrosity at the entrance to the auction house. Half wolf, half leopard, with a slash of bird mixed in. Long snout covered in raw sienna fur; mask of tan fur surrounding a thick band of black around her emerald eyes. Huge ears suggested she was part dune fox, each standing eight inches off her skull. A shaggy mane screwed on the back of her spine, colored in chocolate fur. A lighter hue of brown took place on the rest of her body, spotted with black, empty circles. Each empty circle seemed to tell a story of how he felt, the feeling of emptiness inside of him. Tail of a leopard cradled the side of the monstrosity she sat on. Large, black wings spread out, spanning six feet from her body.

The monster she sat on was a white griffin, reigned by large black leather ropes that extended from its beak. The giant stood eighteen feet eight, looking like an island for the fae on it.

Other furries inside of the auction were not noticing this odd couple, at least until she raised a hand and shouted "Five hundred-thousand!" It was not too high or too low, a voice that spoke above all the others.

It fell silent. A few ill-stricken red wolves glared at the feline who dared challenge their bets. The female looked back coldly, holding no emotion and no regard for the group. Any wrong move from the group and they'd be crushed by her griffin. She was sure they didn't want to die that way.

The jaguar's master pointed to the bidder and shouted "Sold!" A creepy grin slunk onto his master's face, tightening the binds on the jaguar's neck.

He would not stand this. A mere creature, twice as small as him, was to order him around! It was not acceptable.

The griffin took a slow step towards the crowd, brushing aside several strays. It growled, feathers secure around its mistress. Gray eyes looked at its objective, squawking as the fae above it tugged on its reigns and patted it between the ears.

"That's a good boy.." The mistress purred lightly, rubbing it happily. The griffin responded in a slight leap of its front paws.

Leaning down, the griffin stretched its front legs out and created a walkway between the stage and the feline. The fae quirked a brow in response.

"Well?"

The jaguar perked up at her question. "What?

You want me to go onto that?"

"Sure I do."

He gulped.

He had become the dust mote he envied.

Glancing back at his master, he inwardly let out a sigh when the master let release of him. Using well-trained claws, he scampered onto the bird and clung to its mane with claws.

"I can leave you there if you want."

He furrowed his brows. He found himself climbing from around the wing of the griffin and behind the Royal halfbreed. At the altitude he was at, he felt a bit lightheaded. The jaguar realized he was sitting backwards, looking at the whipping of the griffin's tail. He smacked himself mentally for it.

Then, behind him, a chuckle. It was a light sound that sent his heart into chaos.

The jaguar dared to glance over his shoulder. The wolf was peeking at him from the corner of her eye, laughing at him.

"Alvar, off!" She cracked the reigns and the bird trampled out of the doors at the entrance.

From the cool airs that they walked into, the griffin beat its wings with such a force that it started up a small gale across the plains on the other side of the auction house. The jaguar hung tightly as they began the journey into the sky.

The freedom he prayed for answered with this life.

It started off quietly, neither preferring to speak out. Kavi had only laid down her fighting spirit, not the distrust she felt for the jaguar.

Kavi hesitated before speaking up.

"I'm not going to call you 'kid' all the time. What are you called?" She crossed her arms as she turned around. She trusted her griffin to fly without her control.

"Dhe." He replied with no more than one syllable.

"Oh."

He turned to look at the griffin's wings, how they maneuvered with grace. He found himself tranced by their timed beats, how they moved at a certain time.

Kavi noticed the out-of-reality gaze. She smirked.

"This is the most interesting blank wall I have ever seen," she taunted. "Where did you find it?"

Dhe felt the blood rush to his face, turning it beet red. "I...was just thinking."

She cocked a brow. "If I was narrating your life, I'm sure you were thinking of something gruesome."

He did think. Harder than he wanted.

.o

The flashes of his past came back to him like a film without sound. His mother--the real mother, one that was in heaven--comforted him when he was twelve years old. When he still had his mate by his side as he returned home over the holiday to see his mother. When he could love.

He had revealed a dream that he was following footprints that led to nowhere but darkness. His mother told him something, and that echoed in his mind.

"Footprints in a dream indicate something something or someone you have missed, or is missing in your life."

Dhe's mother gestured to the mate beside him, a Siberian tiger. "Your mate might be a mistake in your lifetime." She then furrowed her brows in thought.

"Perhaps she is not the right one for you. Perhaps someone is never quite there for you. Someone you haven't met, yet."

Dhe was about to leave, but the look on his mother's face hinted that she was not done. Dhe always looked at his mother as his role model for her wisdom of age. She was an intelligent species, and always enjoyed telling and listening to her dream rants.

"Dhe, when you said you were following the footsteps that led to nowhere, you were wandering. That suggests you are searching and looking for some direction in your life. If your mate can't help you find that direction, then she might not be the wisest choice you have made. No offense, miss." She apologized to the feline that stood beside her son.

"Lastly, before I set you free, I would like to confront you on the darkness in your dream. I am sure that you did not feel safe in the dark. You were walking endlessly, so you were considered lost in the darkness. When you dreamed this..." She hesitated, debating on if she should continue on the subject. "...It's indicating feelings of desperation, depression, or insecurity."

The shouts from his mate in the flashback couldn't be understood by Dhe--the ability to recognize speech had begun to fail as the memory began to blurry. He had two people within him. His mother and his mate. He felt more alone than ever before, even though his mate had been able to fill the missing piece in him. He chuckled inwardly at that thought.

He, at one time, had read The Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein. He had been inspired by that broken circle and how it searched hard for its missing piece. A year had passed after he read that book, and that was when he found his missing piece.

All missing pieces eventually wear out. His, like the circle's, did not seem to fit in with him. A perfect example would have been the day that his mate broke up with him; his piece fell from him.

Now he was in search of a new piece. At that moment, in his own chain of memory and thought, he experienced extreme euphoria that rivaled the most intense orgasm. He didn't know why it burst into him, but he cried out and arched toward it without hesitation.

And suddenly it stopped. That sensation tapered off and he was brought back to the painful reality.

.o

The lighting was so dim that Dhe had to smack himself in order to readjust to the light. The remains of the past swayed in a hazy cloud in the back of his mind.

He shook his head and looked up. He was still on the griffin, who was splayed haphazardly on the ground. The throne was similar to his old one.

When he was younger, he had an abusive father that lounged on a chair similar to a throne. Except, instead of that tyrant, it was Kavi sitting in the throne. How odd that she seemed to naturally belong there.

Dhe shook himself of a growing fear and slid off the side of the beast. The beast, however, was fully awake. Dhe thought himself being free, only to have the idea crushed when the griffin did the same to him. He was flattened under the huge paw.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the winged female rising from her perch, shaking her head disappointedly.

"You fail to realize the fact that you can't escape. This area is controlled by me and my faithful assistant, Alvar." She made a swift gesture to the griffin. "Alvar would kill you if you opted to escape."

Dhe remained silent. He needed freedom. He prayed and now God was finding loopholes in that prayer.

She squatted to ground level with the pinned wolf before stroking him almost tenderly under the chin. Dhe thought of the grossest and most non-sexual things just so he wouldn't lean into the petting.

"You desire, but you don't do anything about it. Your mate had left you unsatisfied." Her soft whispers sent tingles up his spine.

"Lessons cannot proceed because of the fact that you'd crave me during the entire session. That is not acceptable." She licked her upper left fang in a feline manner. It was the sexiest thing he'd seen her do.

He wanted her, but he was afraid. What if his mate found out about it? He didn't want to have to love two persons at the same time. Of course, his feelings for Kavi were hardly worth looking into.

Kavi's wings cast jagged shadows over him. "Alvar, release."

The griffin lifted its paw before stuffing it under his mane to give it extra warmth. It couldn't stand the coldness, despite its extremely thick fur.

She lifted him up by the shoulders, words extending to placate him in the form of whispers. The sensation filled his ear and torso, causing him to shudder. Her lips grazed the rim of his ear lightly, something he hadn't felt in years.

Kavi forced him onto the throne, edging herself onto his lap. She didn't want to have sexual intentions in the first part of her lesson with him. She also didn't want him to realize that his training had begun.

"I don't feel for you, yet here I am, on your lap, about to seduce you. What are you feeling?" She quizzed him, raising a brow in a wait of response.

"Well...eh.." he couldn't really put it.

"If you cannot reply, then maybe I should just send you back. You might not even be worth my time."

Dhe heated up inside, flaring his eyes. How dare she! She should be grateful for him even gracing her with his presence!

"Angry. At least we are progressing. Now, get angry at me. Show me what you're feeling in a touch." She smiled coyly.

Dhe noticed that she seemed to be obsessed with anger. That thought was quickly dismissed with the new rage that became an ocean inside of him. That black cloud that swallowed him whole.

His grip found itself to her shoulders, where they threatened to break the shoulder blades. She mimicked the action, though her grip was softer than his. She slid those hands to his neck. Kavi's thumbs oddly moved in a caress on his throat.

"If I threatened you during your anger fit, you'd kill me. However," her claws pierced the first layer of his throat. "I'd be sure to put you at a disadvantage."

She leaned closer, inches away from his face. "Your pent up urges cause you to be enraged so easily," Kavi's lips were mere centimeters away from his. A twitch from either person would have caused their lips to come in contact. "I can solve that problem."

Dhe felt nervous all of the sudden. He turned his head from the feline to enlarge the distance between their faces. Kavi took that opportunity and grasped his neck with her lips. He gasped lightly, feeling more of a reaction to the kiss than what he'd normally feel.

"I should mention that you've been injected with sildenafil citrate and benzodiazepine." She smirked not too nicely, lavishing the part of his neck with her tongue.

"Benzodiazepine I know of, but sildenafil citrate?" His voice wavered through gritted teeth.

"Inventors call it Viagra. Has some interesting effects on you."

Dhe growled. "I'll kill you, ..you.."

At his point of trailing off, Kavi slid closer to her student, slotting one of her tan legs between Dhe's spread limbs. Her lips trailed from his cheek to his chin, tracing the jawline before cherishing a spotted cheek.

"..you..." he couldn't even recall the biting insult when Kavi began to nip the sensitive flesh on the side of his neck. He wasn't going to complain, especially when it was this good. "Oh my God, keepdoingthat.."

The winged female pulled coldly back, right out of Dhe's hands. A screech of frustration tore from his mouth, bucking against the chair to desperately follow the touch.

"You seem to forget it's a lesson, Dhe." Kavi chastised her student disdainfully. "I think you are enjoying it way too much for it to really deter you from a mutiny."

He growled resistantly.

"Or," she smoothly glided back to Dhe, fingers trailing lightly on the jaguar's thigh, "is it that you simply like having my attention on you? My paws on you...?

Dhe could not repress a moan, and it fell from his heated lips in attempt to answer Kavi's question.

It was hard to see, hard to think, hard to do anything except making pleased noises and hoping they encouraged Kavi to keep going in her actions.

Euphoric mix of ecstasy and agony was an easy term to describe the feeling he had. The tawny chest pressing against him caused him to squirm under the intimate contact. He was then assaulted by graceful hands, head falling to rest on Kavi's cold shoulder. The contrast against his heated forehead began to heighten his lust, and he writhed beneath Kavi's fingers.

This was where he'd fall into a pool of blackness with sharks waiting at the edge of the pool. They'd kill him if he didn't stay afloat.

Kavi did one thing that tipped him over the edge: tilting Dhe's head back with one hand and kissing him.

There was no sharks. No killing. It was a rainbow, stars bursting before his eyes in colorful explosions.

Burning pulses shot through his body, arching up against Kavi, feeling wing digits stroking his arms. He cried out her name and arched himself in the perfect display of submission. Kavi smirked, satisfied that all the sexual tension was being released. His fingers were gripping the throne's arms with such a force that they snapped under pressure.

A final cry made the jaguar to go limp, still rapidly heating from the mini orgasm. He didn't come, no, but the touches made him satisfied.

"Well Alvar, we've succeeded in the first lesson. All I can do is pray that he'll survive through the other ones."