The gray haze of morning began to burn off, the sun finally breaking through the cold. Anax had remained reticent for most of the previous day after breakfast, not that Patience minded. She had harvested some onions, garlic, and spinach that were sown last fall in the greenhouse. Quietly going about mundane tasks made her feel almost normal again. Yet by the end of the day, Patience had a sneaking suspicion Anax was almost pouting. Anax still chose to be silent this morning. No matter, Patience wanted to push all thoughts of him to the side for now. Out in the garden, she inspected the rows of soil and fencing for any signs of tampering from the chickens.

“Oh right! I should check if the hens need their wings clipped.”

She made her way to the chicken coop in the shadow of the house, pulling her coat closer. The hens had barely begun their day, not that Patience blamed them in this brisk weather. The girl pulled up the lid on the side to see they were all still in their nesting boxes. At each compartment, she lifted up the bird, extended their wings to examine their feathers, and placed them back in before taking any present eggs. Come the last box, Patience heard the distinct sound of peeping.

“Ahh! It seems you were due today, Rosamund! Let’s have a look at the little ones!” She gingerly picked up the hen, finding five tiny calicoed chicks huddled in a fluffy wad. The girl could not help but feel her heart flutter. They were most endearing. “Congratulations!”

Patience returned the mother to her charges and closed the nesting box lid. “Great! In several weeks I can trade in any males at Mr. Wells’.”

“Mmm, young animals taste the best,” smacked the skull.

“Lamb, I’ll give you that. What, do your young taste any good?” Patience darkly joked.

“I’m sure they taste just fine to wolves and bears.”

“Oh … I’m sorry … I didn’t know anything actually hunted your kind.”

“Only the young and the weak. But they’re usually sufficiently protected. It is just life’s way. We hold no grudges. We can always breed more.”

“That’s … harsh,” Patience said flatly.

“Realistic,” Anax corrected.

“So you feel like talking again?” the girl teased.

He did not respond.

Barring that last exchange, the remainder of the day went smoothly. Patience directed her focus on laundry and spent her energy beating the rugs. Once dinner was had and every dish cleaned and stowed, Patience was able to take in the peaceful evening. The fireplace in the parlor flickered at her stoking, flames stretching against a sooty brick backdrop. Bending over the hearth, the girl sighed contentedly. It was almost as if everything was just as they were a couple of weeks ago. However, the weight of Anax’s skull was not to be ignored. His silence went on long enough for Patience’s taste.

“Hey, is-is anything the matter? You’ve been so talkative, but now …”

“This bucolic life! It’s so banal!” Anax erupted, “We should go into town again! That was fun!”

“I don’t need to go back for a while.”

“Please! I’m used to roaming, hunting, sparring—It’s hard for me to stay in one place!”

“You’re free to find another host!” Patience growled.

“No. You’re fine as a donor. You just need a push. Here, I’ll take us into town!” At once Anax formed his body, suspending Patience in his core. She shrieked in alarm.

“No you will not! People will see and then a whole lot of trouble will come our way!” she yelled.

Anax dissolved into a misty cape once more, dropping Patience to the ground. The landing sent a shock through her shins, causing her knees to buckle. A displeased snarl ripped across the base of Patience’s skull.

“Look, I’m sorry I’m not some adventurer going to the ends of the Earth hunting for treasure to entertain you!” she snapped, growing annoyed. “But you’re stuck with me, so you will have to accept that!”

The sofa squeaked a few inches backwards as Patience sat down in a huff, her displeasure punctuated by the harried crossing of her legs. Reaching over to the side table, the girl picked up the book she had begun reading during the winter. Pages flipped open and Patience searched for where she had last read. A disapproving hiss raked her ears. The girl ignored it, focusing harder on the text partially hidden by the skull. She lifted the book straight in front of her eyes for optimal viewing. Concentrated on the pale leaves, Patience failed to notice the tendrils forming just shy of touching her skin.

“I was looking forward to so much in my first life. If I can’t explore the outside world, I’ll just have to explore you!” Anax darkly purred. His mist crept around the girl’s neck and to her collarbone. The effervescent edge lifted the fabric of her blouse. She felt the lightest draft flow across her bosom.

“Must you? Right now?” Patience grumbled.

Her words fell on deaf ears as Anax began to rub and search with his tendrils. As his fog met her skin, Patience could not help but give into his soft touch. It was a stark contrast to the confining cold pressure she had felt encased in his body just moments ago. Perhaps some animal part of the girl’s brain was yearning for comfort after that shock, but every stroke, twirl, pat, and any other motion he made felt pleasurable. She was losing herself in his caress. Guilt welled within her. She should not be enjoying the advances of this monster.

Anax continued to prod, focusing on recently discovered grounds. A tendril slinked into the girl’s pantaloons, winding to the opening in her drawers. Patience flinched as he touched upon her sex, and let the book slip from her hands. He withdrew the tendril revealing it to be slick with her fluids. She felt her blood rise in embarrassment. Low chuckles emanated from the back of Patience’s head. Her inner walls felt hot and began to ache for attention.

Anax growled, “More! I want more!”

Taking that as a warning, Patience held her breath to brace herself. For good reason. Anax formed arms to pull her blouse down and grapple her breasts, drawing pained winces from between her teeth. Then one hand departed to reach his true quarry. Pulling off her pants and drawers, he greedily inserted two large fingers into her. Patience squirmed against his digits, feeling herself sliding around them.

“Anax! What are you doing?” she gasped.

“Truly making you mine!”

He flexed his fingers, leaving Patience panting. Delighting in her response, Anax manifested a body behind Patience on the sofa. She felt his broad chest, stalwart and snuggly fitted against her back. Effortlessly, he lifted her onto his newly materialized thighs and spread her legs over his knees. Anax forced Patience to gaze down for his own viewing pleasure. Never once did he let up twiddling his fingers.

A few ropey tendrils emerged from his groin and together coalesced into a thick member. It snaked a short way up to Patience’s gap. Anax extracted his fingers, a wet film coating them. As he prodded her entrance with his cock, he smeared the slick around her flesh.

“Anax!”

Only encouraged by the sound of his name, Anax slid into her with a feral grunt. She choked at the pain. Tendrils shot around Patience’s wrists and bound her hands to his shoulders. Wrapping his arms around Patience’s thighs, he carried her off the sofa, claws clicking on the hardwood floors. Still connected, he stormed into her room.

Anax fell upon the bed and began to ravage her. Claws dug into the girl’s chest and torso. His hips bucked furiously against her backside. He had his skull pressed firmly against the headboard, Patience directly under him, her top half suspended by his many ropes. All the girl could do was watch her breasts pass between tendril and claw, compressed and deformed in his strong grip. She whimpered at the stings flashing from her chest and loins. At this point he felt more beast than man.

Growls reverberated behind Patience’s ears, tickling the nerves in her neck. As Anax continued, the pain seceded slightly. If he had started off more gently, instead of immediately pounding into her, Patience could see herself enjoying this more. She held her breath. Two days ago she would have never considered that.

Anax whipped their heads up, veering Patience’s train of thought to redirect it to the searing sensation at the pit of her pelvis, his shaft sliding between her folds with doubled fervor. Patience yelped as he wrenched her breast with his right claw, his left planted into the bed to support them both as he plowed away. She was helpless, subject to his whims alone.

The feeling of him everywhere around her was nearly too much to handle. It was suffocating. Capitulating, she held mouthfuls of breath at a time. Patience screwed her eyes shut. Seeing was pointless as her vision continued to be jostled. Her knees burned as they were rubbed into the quilt. In her mind, she imagined this feeling better, like that time just two nights ago. Currently she only wished it to end so she could catch her breath.

“A-Anax,” she coughed.

“Yes! Call my name, my Pet!” chuffed the skull.

With one powerful thrust, he shoved Patience down into the bed. A gruff groan exploded around her head. Her eyes shot wide open as she felt Anax bury his cock into her cavity, attempting to sheath it right to its base. Plunged to its deepest, a gush of tepid fluid filled her. Silenced by a mix of curious desire and shame, Patience could do naught but curl up underneath Anax’s massive frame. She felt exposed, and oddly disappointed.

When Anax withdrew himself, a small streak of blood gleamed on his shaft. He shifted himself and Patience over so that they rested comfortably on their sides, Patience still pressed to his chest. Her hand crept to her middle, holding it in slight pain.

“That … was your first time …” breathed Anax.

“Y-yes,” Patience replied. Anax relinquished his tight hold on the girl, freeing her from him. She limply rubbed her sore wrists.

“I … I’m sorry.”

Patience’s eyes widened.

“I shouldn’t have taken that from you. Not like that.”

Her heart beat slightly faster.

“I got too excited.”

“It’s … fine,” Patience whispered. Her eyes began to sting. She did not understand why. They remained on the bed a short while, the silence only interrupted by Patience’s hitched breaths as a middling pain flared within her. All she wanted was to sleep this night away. As the pangs of pain ebbed, it seemed her dreams were within reach. Her eyelids grew heavier as she succumbed to the stillness enveloping her.

“You may take me off, if you wish.”

Clear and firm, his voice cut through the sleepy haze of her temples. Patience held still, her eyes as wide as her lids could allow. The moment seemed to be suspended in time. No words formed on her lips, nothing passed through Patience’s mind. No one knew how much time passed before Patience slowly shifted her arms up towards her head. Fingers clutched the base of the skull. There were no smoking coils to stop her. With a slight push, the skull came off of her head. The girl sat up, a monstrous skull held between her hands. Rising, she placed it on the chair in the corner and left the room to clean herself.

Dressed in her nightgown, Patience paused in front of the tall mirror in the hallway. If it had been another girl, many would say she had just lost her innocence. Searching in the glass, Patience Firmin no longer stared back with the twinkle in her eye that she had in her childhood. No. Patience had lost her innocence years ago when she buried her parents.

Caring for two elderly individuals when she was barely eighteen took a toll on the girl. Obligated to stay at home and assist them, she shied away from town activities early in her adolescence. She stopped going to picnics. She never went to dances. Then again, perhaps that was for the best. Remaining indoors shielded her from the cold stares and grimaces of young men in town seeking brides. A hand lifted to the base of her burn by her brow. It glared an angry shade of rose.

The moon hung low in the sky as Patience realized how early she had finished dinner. She brewed a cup of tea to preemptively assuage the pain building in her scalp. Currently it was no more than an itch, but after what transpired, Patience readied herself for a storm. She picked up the clothes Anax had scattered on the floor. Under her blouse was the book that she had dropped. No longer in the mood to read, she placed it back onto the side table for another night. Standing in the center of the rug, front towards the warmth of the hearth, her eyes drifted to the beasts frozen in time surrounding her.

She rubbed at her forehead, the first time she was able to in days. Anax was now a simple skull once more. She could store him away in her father’s workshop, a place she had not visited in years despite it being just behind the greenhouse in the backyard. A shiver crawled up her spine as she pictured a mouse scurrying under Anax, giving life to him anew. A creeping fear of meeting Anax face to face and staring into the floating orb of his eye crested over the girl’s heart.

Patience shook her head and flashed a sad smile at the unmoving animals around her. This was what her life was about: keeping up the home her parents gave her, keeping her parents’ memories alive. Anax only served as a bump in the road of her planned course, a distraction. It was time to come back down to reality. She should be thankful that he gave her permission to separate from him.

Tea cup empty and prepared for bed, Patience nestled into her quilt. She laid her head onto her silk pillow, reveling in the cool fabric against her scalp. The pain remained a dull tingle. She had been certain it was going to be worse. Accepting this fortunate break, the girl let sleep overcome her. Before her last blink, she stole a glance at the large skull sitting on her chair bathed in blue moonlight.