Patience gulped as one of Anax’s tendrils reached down her torso. It prodded gently below her navel and caressed her little mound, teasing about the pubic hair.

“Strange the places where your species has hair,” mused Anax.

Patience noticed other tendrils lapping over the rest of her body, stroking her limbs and torso. They were more condensed than they had been earlier; each felt like a soft curious finger. Shen then became aware of a pronounced tingling sensation around her loins which drew the brunt of his attention, and hers.

“I’ve always wanted a human come my second life,” the skull chimed gleefully. “How lucky I am to have one as my first donor!” His tendril met her gap. Her breaths quickened. She felt her face begin to burn.

“What’s this? You’re wet here!” He slid his tendril against her slit, dragging a bit of fluid deliciously in circles. Patience released a light gasp.

“This pleases you.”

“I-it feels strange, but … nice,” she admitted beneath heavy eyelids.

Anax’s tendril thickened and glossed back and forth. At every other pass, Patience squirmed, shifting her hips.

“This fluid, this heat, your motions. I like it,” Anax rumbled. He pressed harder, writhing his appendage rhythmically. Head feeling pleasantly muddled, Patience embraced his molestation. She responded to his touch with soft moans as she flexed into him.

Anax rubbed his tendril against her with greater force, quicker. Her fluid mixed with his fog, dampening the place between her thighs with slick abandon. Patience felt a pressure in her loins as a heat rose in her core. Anax continued to play.

“Anax …” she breathed. Patience found herself yearning for each slip, each flick. She whimpered to provoke more daubs from the slinking coil. The creature then pressed her mound with great strength, letting his tendril lick the top of her slit. At once a conflagration of pleasure burst from below her waist. Patience panted into the cave of Anax’s skull, hips thrusting, loins pulsing. At the back of her neck she heard Anax hum in satisfaction.

As the blissful fire seceded and her face cooled down once more, Patience laid there at a loss for words. Her mother taught her how to run the household, work the garden, raise the chickens, use the tools, cook, and sew. Her father ensured she learned the art of dissection, the art of life, to respect nature, to do good by her, to praise her. They instructed their daughter in all the skills she needed to live and appreciate life. Yet, they did not inform her about the ways of the heart nor of the flesh. She only knew what it could produce, how it happened. This new sensation baffled her. Now the warm lull of sleep seeped through her body. Her eyes fluttered until they could open no more.

In the cool light of dawn, Patience awoke bundled under a throw. She remembered she had fallen asleep last night before putting on her nightgown and that she had slept on top of her covers. Perhaps Anax had reached over to the chair in the far corner of the room and grabbed the blanket from its back. She lifted her head slightly. Indeed the chair sat naked. The abilities of the creature still unsettled her.

Patience tilted her head to stare at the ceiling. She did not want to make mention of what transpired the previous evening just yet. She swallowed her anxiety and sat up. Reaching her hands up to the nape of her neck, she realized Anax’s skull obstructed her ability to braid.

“You wish to braid your hair as you had it before?” asked Anax.

“Um, yes …” mumbled Patience.

Taking initiative, tendrils formed at the girl’s nape and began separating strands of hair. Patience mentally stumbled again, then figured he had picked up this skill from her as well. Anax was quite deft at it. Strand wound over strand, fitting neatly into place. However, the feeling of his cool soft tendrils against her skin brought Patience’s mind back to the events several hours prior. She had to address it.

“Anax … what happened last night was …”

“I did not know humans could behave in such ways!” chimed Anax, grabbing a ribbon from the dresser top to finish his work.

“It’s unnatural. I’m a host and y-you’re just a p—”

“A parasite?” Anax sneered, vitriol pooling at the back of his jaw. “I am more than that. I am the dominant being here.”

Patience felt her insides ring hollow. She got up and began dressing.

“You still need me to even be here,” she grumbled.

It was an awkward breakfast of toast and canned pork and beans. The overcast sky provided a paltry amount of light, painting the kitchen in washed out shades. Anax remained silent. Patience was not sure if it would be better if he talked. She simply ate in peace despite the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions careening through her head. As she washed the dishes, Anax finally spoke.

“You’re mind is restless.”

Patience’s gaze followed the dirty water draining away from the sink all the way down a small chute leading through the wall to the outside of the house. Once the water evacuated, she pushed down a little door of glazed tile, closing the chute.

“Can you blame me? After what you did,” she said, wiping down her plate.

“But it pleased you.”

“It—it’s a fairly private thing—down there, and all matters associated with it.” She rubbed a towel over the ceramic and continued long after the surface was dry. “It’s an intimate affair—that only those who are really close and in a special relationship are privy to.”

“Are we not intimate? We’ve touched minds! You are my life-donor! Is our relationship not special?”

“Well, yes. But it’s different. I’m a human and you’re a … beast.”

“Do not compare me to some slovenly animal!” Anax roared. His voice beat into the back of Patience’s neck. She winced, nearly dropping the plate before she stowed it in the cupboard.

“I’m sorry. I’m a human and you’re not, Anax.”

“What difference does that make? I can change my form at will! I’ve become more humanoid!”

“Still, it’s not the same! It’s—”

“What does it matter if we both enjoyed it?”

Patience paused. Anax was not some dumb animal. He was correct in that regard. This was not the same as those lurid tales of farmboys copulating with their cattle. Anax was an enchanted beast no more. Disregarding appearance and physiology, he may as well be a man. Still, the rational parts of her brain objected. Deep down in a more primal pocket, the worry of what Anax could do next grew. Even deeper down, a spark of morbid curiosity flashed.