Now, Gem was child-free in every sense of the word; he did not have a parental bone in his very large body. But watching Rusty smile and carefully pet the pippies had his non-existent uterus throbbing. Was thiswhat his moms felt every time his dad would read Gem and his siblings a story or comfort them after a break-up?
If so, he finally understood why he had sixteen siblings—well, seventeen, now that his ugly as fuck brother had hatched.
He took several pictures, then plopped one of the pippies onto Rusty’s head, right between his ears and took another one. Rusty glared up at him, flipping him off. Then his expression glitched, and he made a gagging noise as he—carefully—removed the pippies and stood.
“It fucking pissed on me,” he growled, and Gem burst into laughter.
“This is the best day of my life!”
Of course, all of that paled in comparison to the cows. It was everything Gem had dreamed it would be, and as he lay atop a beautiful black and white spotted cow—a Holstein, Oliver had called it—he nearly wept from happiness. There was even a baby, and it was even cuter than the pippies.
He didn’t ever want to move from this spot, but when the dinner bell rang, he grudgingly bid farewell to the cow and her baby—he’d named them both Gem—and followed Oliver and Liel to the clean-up station.
That night, Gem dozed fitfully. The bed was too hard, and he’d eaten too much sugar, and Toni was snoring offensively. The sounds outside were foreign and loud, and Rusty hadn’t come back from his walk yet. That was probably the most worrisome concern keeping him awake, and he huffed and sat up, glaring down at Toni as he released another obnoxious snore.
As quietly as he could, Gem slunk out the bedroom and tip-toed down the hall. A muffled giggle came from Glyma and Quin’s room, and an uncomfortable tremble of horny energy tickled along Gem’s arm, tempting his dick to rouse.
“Ew,” he whined, hurrying his steps to escape before he heard or feltanything else.
He crept out onto the back porch, ensuring the door didn’t squeak, then he searched his surroundings. The pastures were mostly empty of animals, and only one moon shone in the sky, casting eerie white light over the farm. His night vision wasn’t all that sharp, and everything looked foreign and a little creepy in the dark.
“Rusty,” he whisper-shouted, shuffling to the edge of the porch. “Rusty?”
What if he was lost or hurt? What if he’d fallen and couldn’t get up? Oh deities, what if he’d been eaten?
“Rusty, don’t you dare make me come save you,” he snarled quietly into the night. “Un-fucking-acceptable!”
He paced on the porch, glaring at the scary human night that Rusty was going to force him to explore. Oh, when he found that Pyclon, he was going to rip him a new asshole. Or rip the asshole he already had. Shit, now he was thinking about Rusty’s asshole, which was entirely unhelpful!
“Come on, Gem, you’re an Araknis. There’s nothing out here that could actually hurt you. It’s time to pussy up!” He took several fortifying breaths through his nose, then he charged off the porch and into the terrifying human world.
He’d only taken a few steps when something dropped from the large, leafy tree to his left and said, “Gem?”
“Ah! Don’t eat me,” Gem cried as he dove to the ground, covering his head with two hands and his ass with the other four—it really was his best feature, after all, and needed to be protected at all costs.
Rusty chuffed a laugh. “What?”
As the Pyclon came to a stop in front of him, head cocking, one ear folding down, Gem rolled into a sitting position and glowered. “Where the fuck have you been?”
Rusty jabbed his thumb towards the tree. “I was hanging out in the tree.”
“For how long?”
“Uh, I dunno. Ten minutes?”
Gem’s leg fur released a frustrated hum. “Did you not hear me calling you just now?”
“No, why were you calling me?”
“Because I didn’t know where you were.”
“I just said I was up in the tree.”
“Well, I didn’t know you were up in the tree,” he hissed, and Rusty held up his hands placatingly. “You just never came back. I thought you were lost. Or hurt. Or possibly eaten!”
The chain connecting Rusty’s wallet to his jeans clinked as he crouched. “Why would I be eaten?”
“I don’t know. Ollie said that there were animals that came out at night and ate people. Keyodies or pierogies or something.”
