Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The temperature was rising in the Emerald Realm, although not quite the same, seasons felt somewhat similar to what the refugees remembered back on Tamaris, it was just that autumn and winter were merged together, and that they also had what they called 'transitional seasons' which were basically at most a week of heavy rains or strong winds. Although most refugees did not purposefully try to learn such information as they would wrongly, but naturally assume that these sorts of things would work the same, there was one who was very much interested in such intel however. Toby had been told by Minli that Jokras would cease mating when winter came, and this sounded pretty good to the otherworlder considering that his bunny-eared sweetheart was relentless when it came to such affairs, it was an understatement in fact. He had to thank Pierre-Ornée for the training, otherwise his heart might have already stopped beating by the end of the first time, still, even after convincing Ooaluz to switch from the dreadful piston-like technique she was fond of to something calmer. As enduring one session of this thing, two or three in a row was one thing, but twenty or more and it was starting to feel like attempted murder, he was still drained every day without fail, but he could at least walk away afterward, expecting respite to come in the shape of winter… It was the height of summer right now however, so on top of having to deal with the beast sorceress, the air was getting awfully warm, the kind emerald sun blasting its rays of green upon everything below, and even inside the cool room, things quickly turned sweaty. Toby was rethinking his life choices whilst laying in bed, utterly spent and dehydrated, cursing himself as he knew very well that he would still do the same thing with full prior knowledge. 'It's just a habit to take…' thought Toby to himself, it was but the beginning of their relationship, surely he would get used to it and maybe even the system would deign granting him something to provide assistance one day. Meanwhile, Ooaluz seemed to be satisfied for today, cuddling up to him in a manner so gentle that it could soothe one's very soul, the beast worshipper suddenly leaned up against his chest, grinning from ear to ear with the distinct incisors teeth of rabbits sticking out. He was fairly certain that they were getting more pronounced with each passing day… "Say Toby, wanna accompany me to go commune?" she ran one finger across his chest, now completely laying on top of him. "Sure" he responded, that should be a less strenuous activity, and he was fairly certain that this was actually a pretty significant demand to make, each beast worshipper commune with whatever beast they wanted, and wherever they saw fit, this was their equivalent to praying but it was mostly solitary, the only exceptions being the youths who needed to accompanied and watched over during their first communions, and also significant others. Although, Toby was no beast worshipper himself, so he did not see what he could apart from being here. "Great! Let's go!" rolling off of him and off the bed, Ooaluz slipped into her robes, which was actually all that she wore regularly. "You'll see, my spot is great- The jokras come on their own, super easy to commune with them!" hopping in place excitedly, she provided a bit of explanation as Toby stretched his weary limbs and got dressed, each of his joints producing a satisfying pop, he didn't know who had thought to call it bedroom sports but they couldn't have possibly imagined how right they were with this analogy. She took his hand and led the way through the town, people looking and congratulating them, they all knew, without exception, and it wasn't surprising since Ooaluz didn't seem to care about being heard. Still slightly hopping with every step, they eventually left the town and headed to nearby woods, the fiery orange leaves seeming even more vibrant than ever, walking in between trees until a small grove was reached, there, the grass was small and soft, the place shaded by a tree with a wide canopy and pinkish leaves, many burrows visible all over the place. "You come here everyday?" "Yup! Or at least, I try to- Come on, sit right there" moving to the middle of this little piece of nature, Toby did as he was told and sat cross legged upon the grass, even the soil seemed pleasantly soft around here, the air was cooled down by a gentle breeze, and although very nice, the emerald sun could not cast its light without obstruction around here. The beast sorceress raised her hands, and he instinctively mirrored it, interlocking fingers, she told him to close his eyes. Truth be told, despite spending quite a lot of time reading their stuff, being around them and even having intimacy with one, Toby did not know that much about how they communed or even how beast worship worked, how they gained animalistic traits through their prayers… It seemed to be passed down orally. All that he had gleaned was that some would commune with a single species exclusively, like Ooaluz, or commune with different ones to obtain different parts, like Priestess Iliz, the former seemed simpler than the latter, as it didn't seem to require to somehow know what to change or what to add, you just slowly became more and more like that one type of beast. As if drawn out, countless Jokras emerged from their burrows, many of which were young ones, Toby kept his eyes closed, but he could somehow tell all of this. 'What the hell…' they were like five couples from the looks of it, and yet, they had managed to give birth to hundreds of little jokras, and they all seemed of the same age, so it wasn't an accumulation over a long period of time, they had just repeatedly multiplied. 'Good thing Ooaluz isn't completely like them…' just as he thought this, he heard a small whimper emerging in front of him, the hold upon his hands tightening for a brief moment. "Y-You can open your eyes now" There were no jokras in sight anywhere, but Toby was more interested in the sorceress, whose bright brown hair had distinctively begun to take on the same bright blue shade as that of the rabbit-like beast. "Oh wow, that's a pretty sudden leap, isn't it?" he asked, Ooaluz breathing heavily. "I think they sensed our connection and bestowed more than usual… I must have become more jokra-like since I met you~" letting go of his hands, she leaned forward and instead wrapped her arms around Toby's neck. "Hum- Ooaluz?" "I feel warm…" "Well it's pretty hot right now-" "...Down there" "Ah… Huh…" Toby did not need a graph to understand the implication especially as she was not-so subtly nibbling on his ear and neck whilst slowly pushing him onto the ground. "Alright then, so you inherited more of their… Tendencies than usual?" grabbing her waist, he took the initiative and instead moved Ooaluz onto her back. "Heheh… Are you going to mount me?" "I wouldn't say it like that… But yes" he didn't have much of a choice, no way he comes out unscathed from another hip-smashing session just after having already tired himself barely twenty minutes ago.