"You-you're really Ao-ao?" Samantha asked with hesitation in her voice. She hadn't thought she'd see her friend again in this life, but it was still reassuring to understand why she already trusted him as well as the connection she felt in her heart. "I can prove it, if you want," he replied while grinning. The relief he felt in reaching her in time and the spar's obvious effectiveness in saving her made him feel positively giddy. Before she could respond, he stepped back and morphed into the large fox Samantha had bonded with not so long ago. He approached her again, arching his body downward as he put his face on his forepaws and looked up at her with his expressive and blessedly familiar eyes. The males heard Samantha laugh for the first time since her most recent awakening, and any worry they still held about her physical state was put to rest. "You are my Ao-ao!" Samantha exclaimed happily, quickly jumping out of St. Benjamin's grasp and closing the distance between Spencer and herself. She did her best to cradle his large head, placing her face against the top of it in the best embrace she could manage. "I'm so, so glad that you're back safely," she said, her eyes beginning to well up with tears again, "I missed you more than you could ever know."

Samantha had so much more she wanted to talk to him about, but before she could say anything else, her stomach let out a healthy rumble. Spencer had a front row seat to her stomach's complaint, and shifted back to his humanoid shape so he could communicate with her again. He didn't hesitate to speak up, saying, "You need to eat! Have you eaten anything at all since the last time I saw you?" Samantha could only blush and look at her feet, although Spencer couldn't help but notice that St. Benjamin looked like he wanted to speak. Ignoring that situation while making a mental note to return to it later, he asked her, "What would you like to eat? If you name it, I can get it for you." Samantha paused for a while before replying, "I really don't know what to ask for. I feel like I could eat anything! But I don't know this area and so I'm not really sure what my options are. Do you want to go ahead and surprise me?" She took a while to think before adding, "Since I'm not a beastman, I can't eat all of the same things that both of you do, so food that is starting to decompose or has been left alone for a while or any raw meat will probably make me very sick."

Spencer nodded. "It's late," he said, "but I'll see what's around and I'll bring something back. You stay with St. Benjamin; there are plenty of things in the forest that can hurt you, and hopefully he is strong enough to protect you," and lowered his voice to add, "especially after he slaughtered an entire hill full of beastmen." St. Benjamin heard the fox's slight and moved into the light for the first time. As he did so, Samantha realized she had never seen his entire body before and could recognize him only by that brief moment when he first entered her den along with what she'd felt during their time in the dark. He, like Spencer, was shockingly handsome, although they looked so vastly different from each other. Where Spencer was pale, St. Benjamin's skin was an attractive deep caramel; his hair, which she had seen before, was nearly straight and extremely shiny, brushing his shoulders seductively. His heavy-lidded, upturned black eyes reflected the green light of the luminous pearl, and they were framed with thick black lashes that enhanced the look of his eyes to what could only be called perfection.

As she examined his face, she recalled her hands tracing his features as he fed her so intimately while they held each other. His nose was strong, like she remembered; large and protruding with the slightest curve, it was almost embarrassingly erotic to look at. Although his lips were wide and thick, his bottom lip was noticeably thicker than the top and almost begged to be kissed exclusively. His jawline narrowed sharply to his chin, giving him the same severe look that his personality sometimes mirrored. Samantha realized she had been correct when she thought she felt a scar on his face before; it was in exactly the place she remembered it, a deep crevice stretching from a few inches above his right eye that intersected his eyebrow, luckily missing his orbital area and continuing down the middle of his right cheek. What she had missed was that it continued down the whole right side of his neck and ended in the top portion of his exposed right pectoral.

At that moment, Samantha was shocked to discover the biggest factor in the males' looks that she had completely overlooked earlier: that neither of them was wearing a single stitch of clothing. Her mind flashed back to the first person she had encountered that first day in the forest, and how he also been naked as the day he was born. Samantha spent a few seconds that stretched into small eternities taking in just how absent any kind of bodily coverings were, her eyes darting from one male to the other in disbelief. This was one more total difference in looks between the two - while Spencer was possibly the most well-endowed specimen she had ever seen, St. Benjamin had absolutely no genitalia on his crotch. Even chalking it up to his being an actual scorpion, Samantha was rendered speechless by the bodies of her companions.

Spencer felt jealousy rising dangerously in his chest as he watched Samantha taking in St. Benjamin's naked form, and while he hadn't considered the feral to be a love rival in the past, that changed immediately. Before he could let his emotions get the better of him, he spat out, "Gather some firewood while I'm gone," before turning his back to the pair and heading off, changing into a fox as he left. St. Benjamin felt Samantha's eyes on him as well, but resented the examination. He didn't want her to see, or at least acknowledge, what he considered his physical flaws in addition to being a member of the most hated race of beastmen on the continent. Spencer's aggressive tone sparked a similar mood in St. Benjamin, and he grabbed Samantha by the wrist, with only an angry, "Let's go," before he began pulling on it. Samantha was acutely aware that she was the one who had spoiled the previously cordial moment they had all shared, and guiltily allowed herself to be dragged out of the tunnel by St. Benjamin.

Her short legs could not keep pace with the long ones possessed by the scorpion, who towered over her in height despite her own well-above-average size for a female human. She stumbled several times but said nothing, doing her best to use her newly healthy body to jog occasionally to make up the difference. Once they were outside, both the lateness of the hour and the crowded canopy of the forest worked to blind her newly-corrected eyesight. St. Benjamin stopped abruptly and Samantha ran into his backside, but instead of causing him to budge at all, Samantha fell backward. Suspended only by the strong grasp of St. Benjamin's large hand, she righted herself just in time to find a dry branch thrust at her. "Hold this," the scorpion muttered at her, obviously still in a foul mood. Samantha sighed regretfully, and grasped the first piece of firewood in her free hand. Although St. Benjamin made each piece of firewood look light as a feather, they grew extremely heavy as Samantha bundled them to herself as they accumulated.

Finally, St. Benjamin found suitable kindling and thrust this at Samantha as well, only turning around when she didn't take it from his hand. Looking at her struggling with an armload of firewood that was clearly dragging her down, sympathy for the female began to bloom in his chest. She hadn't spoken a word for nearly an hour, now that he thought about it, and for this female at least, that was highly unusual behavior. He usually enjoyed her chatting with him, or chattering at him, to fill the time, taking in what she had to say and enjoying her replies to his own contributions to the conversation. She didn't look at him, but he could see the crestfallen look on her face and the blank look in her eyes; an expression he knew well from having worn it so often, himself. He placed the kindling on top of the large burden she carried, then picked her up gently in his arms to carry her back to their temporary camp where Spencer was probably waiting for them. She laid the firewood across her belly and chest wordlessly, and leaned her head against St. Benjamin as he returned to camp as quickly as he could while jostling her as little as possible.

Author's Note:

So this is chapter 20, y'all! I hope that you all continue to enjoy the story, because I still have so much more to write! I apologize for not updating yesterday, but I really needed to take a little time to refresh myself so I can keep the quality of my writing up to the highest caliber I can produce. Also, my two fluffy writing assistants have prepared the second chapter of their compelling story, so please feel free to check out my other work as well and see what they have to say! (Note: they are cats, so while they certainly have typed a lot on my keyboard, your mileage may vary as to what you're able to get out of it.) Until next time, and thank you all again for all of your support!