“If he’s getting close, I’m going in,” Kinara said.

  “You know as well as I do, you’re the last of us who can go prancing around,” Ahlaksiz said, likely referring to the fact that many monsters wanted to eat Kinara’s kind. “I won’t be of much use here, Amabie is also not a good choice—not being from here—and Devasla, you would scare the hell out of them. So that leaves—”

  “Of course I’ll go,” Milrae cut in.

  “And me,” Jalee said.

  I grinned, having figured it would be my original gals who would want to go. Kinara pouted, but the rest seemed okay with the arrangement.

  “We’ll form a perimeter,” Devasla said. “Keep it safe, monitor who comes and goes.”

  “One thing,” Randi said, eyes showing humor as she added, “We’re in the land of monsters, now. We’ve waited long enough…”

  “Ah, right,” Kinara was the first to catch on, shimmying out of her clothes and suddenly standing there stark naked. At least it was dark, so when next Ahlaksiz, then Jalee and Milrae, stripped, it wasn’t as awkward as it might have been in broad daylight. Of course, I made it more awkward by waiting. Even more so when I wasn’t the only one. Lizzy stood next to a now-nude Randi, half-human and half-snake, on one side and the always-nude form of Devasla on the other.

  Everyone looked from me to Lizzy, then back to me, and finally, it was Bloodsong who cleared her throat.

  “I get it,” Bloodsong said, “I’m not used to this land or its ways, either. But neither of you have reason to be shy, and I guarantee this won’t be the last time you have to strip in front of each other.”

  “Actually, they’ll likely be moving around in these parts without clothes for… who knows how long,” Amabie said, her scales retreating so she was fully nude. “Best to get it over with and get used to it.”

  “It’s so weird for you humans?” Koharu said with a laugh, then shook her breasts back and forth. “They’re just parts of our bodies, like our fingers, noses—”

  She stopped because I had suddenly dropped trou. With most of them nude and seeing Koharu shake her breasts, I was hard as stone. The fact that I’d pulled it out instead of naturally stripping added to the embarrassment, even more so when Lizzy stared.

  Damn.

  I covered myself, blushing, and hating the laughs from Jalee and Kinara.

  “For the record,” I said, starting to pull my pants up, “when a man does that, it’s rude to laugh.”

  “Just, help him,” Bloodsong said, and suddenly Kinara and Jalee were on me, pulling off my clothes and tossing them into my satchel, which they at least let me keep.

  “Hey!” I protested.

  “Shut up. You’re a man, your penis gets hard. We get it.” Jalee stepped back, my clothes off, and gestured to the shoes and socks. “All of it.”

  “But we’re walking…”

  She sighed. “We are in a land of monsters, going up against who knows what, and your biggest worry is the soles of your feet getting scratched?”

  I couldn’t help but notice that Lizzy had pulled off her top and bra, her nipples taut as she worked her jeans. That made me forget about the shoes, so I kicked them off, then the socks. Lizzy saw me watching but didn’t bother to conceal herself as she pulled off her pants and panties, putting them in my satchel as well. Close like that, I could smell her perfume. Lilacs?

  If she ever had trimmed down there, it had certainly been a long time ago. Her thick bush nearly concealed the line of her pussy. She held her hands out by her sides, eyeing me in return.

  “Now that we’ve both had a good look, should we get on with it?”

  I felt my cheeks burning, nodded, and said, “Suiko, ready?”

  “You living types are hilarious,” she replied, then looked down at herself. “But to be fair…” She eyed me as her kimono faded, leaving only her nude, ghostly form.

  Fuck me, my cock felt like it was going to explode. I took a deep breath, and said, “I’m less worried about getting my head chopped off as I am passing out from blood flow to my cock. Does this get… more normal?”

  “Probably not,” Bloodsong said. “And yeah, we noticed.”

  I gave her a playful glare, then decided to try to have fun with it. Turning and pointing with my erect cock, I said, “Is it that way?” I turned again, sticking it out. “Or… that way?”

  They burst into laughter.

  “Children,” Suiko said, shaking her head, then took my cock in an ice grip, pointing slightly to the left of where it was. “That way.”

  Her touch sent a chill through me. And as good as it felt, the effect was like a cold shower, causing the pressure of blood in my cock to lessen, at least enough to allow me to think clearly.

  2

  “Good thing this wasn’t how she first saw it,” Milrae said, glancing over with a grin at my cock, small and flapping back and forth in the cold wind.

  “Shut up,” I said. “And if you all really want me to get used to this, comments like that don’t exactly help.”

  “Right. Sorry.” She grinned. “Noticed how you didn’t defend yourself and try to claim you didn’t care what she thought.”

  “We did see you looking,” Jalee added.

  “Was kind of hard not to see that,” Suiko added.

  “You too, Suiko?” I shook my head. “Come on, as if I needed more than you all.”

  “Keep telling yourself that, but I’d bet a good ninety percent of that massive erection was for her.”

  In my mind, I was thinking of her and Koharu, but I pushed that imagery aside.

  “I’m still as turned on by all of you as I ever was.”

  “Uh huh.”

  With a glance at Suiko, I motioned ahead. She got the point.

  “Right,” Suiko said. “We should probably be quieter. It’s not far ahead now.”

  The other two continued to smile, and Milrae gave my flapping cock another glance before focusing. I wrapped my arms around my torso to try and stay warm. At least the rough terrain that scratched my feet was a distraction.

  Finally, Suiko had us stop and motioned for me to stay put. I nodded, crouching down next to a large tree, and put my hand to Basty. He sent warmth through me, and I wanted to kick myself for not asking for help from him earlier.

  Watching the ladies go, Milrae with her red panda tail waving above her nice ass, Jalee with her dark skin barely visible in the night, and Suiko, whose translucent ass glowed bright white, her long black hair covering it at times as it swayed around as if it was floating in the ocean, you can be damn sure I got hard again. Even when they were out of sight it persisted, and since all I could see were the trees and the separate mental image that Suiko was transmitting to me—yes, those other two with their asses on display—I couldn’t take it anymore. Partly I figured it would help me focus to have it over with, and partly I just couldn’t control it anymore. Leaning against the tree with one hand, I took my other and started stroking my cock. It felt damn good, and with that vision before me, along with maybe a bit of the danger working as a turn-on, I felt myself on the verge of climax. I half-expected a monster to stumble upon me like that, or one of the ladies to show up, but neither happened. Instead, I let go of the tree, gripping myself with both hands, and nearly fell over as I unloaded all over its bark.

  Standing there, getting out the last bits of cum, I was hit with a thought. Was it sad that my first orgasm in the monsterverse had been by myself? Damn, now I felt guilty.

  “I won’t tell,” Suiko’s voice said in my head. I froze, feeling mortified. Of course, she had still been with me. If I could see what she was seeing, we had some sort of mental connection.

  “Thanks,” I muttered.

  “Also, if you think about it, you weren’t entirely alone. I was with you, in a sense.”

  “Double thanks.”

  “We’re here, going quiet, just in case.”

  Standing there in that dark world, nude and alone—aside from Basty—I couldn’t help but feel a bit of childlike terror. Especially when the curling plants nearby started to move, causing me to almost shout out. I took a step away from one, only to brush up against a velvety plant with bright blue leaves—at least, that was the color I thought I made out in the darkness. My initial sigh of relief wasn’t well-timed, however, because a second later the itch started—bad, right where the plant had gotten me. Its way of getting revenge for me shooting my wad out in its presence? Maybe a coincidence. Either way, I wasn’t feeling so good.

  “Are you alive?” I asked, then felt pretty damn stupid talking to a plant.

  Basty shifted around my neck, morphing into its little animal form, then slid down my arm and hopped off before taking a large bite from the plant. I was doing my best not to scratch the red bumps that were forming, and tried to warn Basty, but he had already taken the bite.

  “Shit,” I muttered, feeling a bit woozy. Even the image from Suiko went a bit fuzzy.

  I ran my hand over my satchel, wondering if there was some connection to Lizzy I could make with my mask. What good would that do, though? Basically, I was looking for any sort of escape I could find from this horrible itching.

  Basty turned and looked up at me, chewing, and grinned. He actually smiled! I was fairly certain that was the first time I’d seen him smile, so had to wonder if it was perhaps more of a reaction to the plant. But he then leaped up onto my shoulder, a long, slimy tongue moving out and along my wound.

  “Basty, that’s gross,” I muttered, noting the mixture of chewed plant on his tongue. He wiped it on me, and I was about to pull him away when I felt such relief from the itch that all I could do was stand there and close my eyes. The sudden lack of irritation was almost better than the quick orgasm I’d had moments before.

  The little guy had made an ointment that worked as an antidote to the poison, mixing it with his saliva. I couldn’t be more grateful.

  “Anytime you need something, let me know,” I said, caressing his head. “I mean it—first dibs on a meal, the whole bed to yourself, you name it.”

  Lately, I’d noticed Basty wanted to sleep on my stomach sometimes, though I had taken to moving him aside for better rest. But at that moment, I decided not to move him anymore. If he wanted to sleep on my belly, no problem. In some ways, I’d taken to thinking of him like a cat—how else do you learn to accept in your mind that you have a nightmarish monster, by some accounts, that spends most of its time around your neck? Maybe a warm, furry snake was the better way to think of him at such times, but he wasn’t dangerous to me. No more than Kinara and the others—which was to say, not at all.

  As I stood there, the creepiness of the night in this strange land came back to me. I started to wonder if there ever might be a scenario in which they would turn on me. It didn’t seem likely, but at that moment my mind was going to weird places. Especially considering that damn blue plant. I glanced up at the tree, a clicking noise pulling my attention first left, then right. Something was definitely up there.

  Little beady eyes caught my attention, then more. They had a slight, yellow glow to them.

  I didn’t have time to linger on those little creatures, however, because just then I got the signal—Jalee had turned, side-boob looking sexy as fuck, and gave me the sign. We were good to go. Past her, I caught my first glimpse of our little friends-to-be.

  They were definitely not Ewoks; more like little dwarves, except twice as hairy. Then again, in all the Hobbit movies, I’d never seen a dwarf without clothes, so maybe it would be similar to this? Short creatures with overly large noses, beady little white eyes—entirely white—and, as Suiko had first said, long hair hanging from most of their bodies.

  Oh, right, I was supposed to notify the others. Moving back up the way I’d come, I spotted Kinara hanging upside down from a tree branch and waved. She dropped, flipping over, and came down to join me.

  “What’s… that?” she asked.

  I followed her line of sight to my arm, where it appeared plated armor covered me—like thick metal that weighed nothing. I frowned, knocking on it, then put my finger under the edge. It moved easily enough, but when I put it back, it stayed in place. Huh. This was an interesting turn of events.

  “It was a rash, but Basty helped me out. A reaction to...” I turned, looking around for that blue plant, but couldn’t see one nearby.

  “Maybe you should get more? Could be damn useful.”

  Her eyes went down to my limp cock, and she pouted. “Ah, your soldier isn’t saluting me anymore.”

  I shrugged, noting that Bloodsong and Ahlaksiz were joining us, Koharu following. The glow of Devasla told me she was there, too, the others likely right behind her.

  “This way,” I said, and followed the path Suiko lit up for me. It appeared as a slight glow only I could see, floating in the air as if we were in a virtual reality world and she’d used a paintbrush to draw her path.

  We caught up with the other three at the outskirts of a little village, where Jalee was already speaking heatedly with one of the little creatures.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked Suiko, trying to keep my eyes at head level.

  “They associate her with the hunters. Say we’re welcome, but not her.”

  “Fuck that.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Can’t we just ask them which way to go?” Koharu asked.

  All eyes went to Ahlaksiz.

  “Hold on, I get why some of you might look at me for leadership out there on Earth, but here?” She shook her head, turning to Jalee and then Milrae. “I’d assume one of you would be the right one to speak with. And since one of you is the issue here, that leaves you, Milkshake.”

  “I so love that name,” Milrae said and grinned. “Give me a sec.” She considered me, then shook her head. “I was going to say you should join me, but we don’t want to risk them biting your junk.”

  “I thought that was the other group type who did stuff like that,” I said, covering myself.

  “Yes, but… let’s be honest, most monsters here are sketchy at best. You’re fairly lucky none of us have bitten it off yet.”

  “Please don’t joke like that,” I protested.

  Kinara shoved her. “No pleases from me. Don’t ever fucking joke about it.”

  Milrae held up her paws in surrender, chuckled, then walked over to chat with the hairy little monsters.

  I was, surprisingly or not, hard again, so preferred not to be involved in the discussion.

  “I’ll say this,” Jalee said, eyeing it. “You sure do get aroused more than most monsters. Maybe it’s a blood flow issue for them.”

  “Good thing though,” Bloodsong said. “I’ve not met many male monsters who can control themselves once they’re hard. Had to kill one or two who couldn’t accept no as an answer.”

  I wasn’t sure what to think of that, so my focus moved to Milrae, who was speaking heatedly with the little hairballs. One pointed at me and made an exaggerated biting motion, to which Milrae bopped the monster on its head.

  That did it—a wave of at least a dozen of them charged her, and she was running back our way.

  “Go!” she said, laughing, her round breasts bouncing with each step. I hadn’t even considered how that would play out with our clothes gone. Losing myself in that sight, I didn’t start to run until Milrae was at my side, pulling me with her.

  “Why are we running?” I asked.

  “Because they wanted your hot dog for dinner as payment for their help, and because it’s never smart to start a war in a place like this.”

  “Good reasons.”

  “Did you get anything at all from them?” Kinara asked.

  “Only that they warned me that Mamadules aren’t far off, so we should be careful.” Milrae came to a stop, turning and indicating the large tree I’d been at earlier. She sniffed and laughed. “Well, I don’t think they’ll chase us past that tree.”

  “What, why?” I asked.

  “You marked it, apparently. If I’m correct, they’ll pick up the scent and won’t know it’s from you until we’re long gone.”

  “What am I missing?”

  “Certain monsters rub against the trees for pleasure.”

  “Like a dog.” Ahlaksiz stepped up beside me, watching the little things slow in their advance.

  “How’s that like a dog?” I asked.

  “When they rub up against legs. The trees are the legs—so keep a lookout for… well, you know. If you smell it, they’re nearby, and those monsters are not the type we want to deal with.”

  As predicted, the little hairy monsters came to a stop on the other side of the line near the tree, sniffing and glancing around.

  “Why are we lingering?” I asked.

  “For one,” Koharu said, approaching from my other side, “we seem to be missing a couple of members of our crew. I can’t find Randi or Amabie.”

  That had my attention, and as we continued the way we’d come, it became clear that she was right. We saw no sign of Randi or Amabie; when Suiko did a quick search, it seemed that something had happened to them.

  In addition to our search for Jalee’s sister, now we had an additional rescue mission on our hands. At least those weird hairy things weren’t on our tail.

  3

  I sprinted through the monster woods, growling as I rubbed against another one of those blue plants. It had my leg this time, the same side as before, and the itching started almost immediately.

  “Do the armor thing like last time,” Kinara said, and I shook my head. “No time, we have to find them.”

  But not three steps later, I collapsed, my leg immobile. A shout sounded from nearby, and I pushed myself up to try and see what it was, then shifted as another cry came. Kinara was at my side, yelling, “Basty, do it!”

  I agreed, and said, “Please, Basty.”

  Immediately, the little guy was off me, running back in the direction of the blue plant.