You stalk through the undergrowth, silent as the wind.  The grip of your crossbow feels good in the hand.  You are the hunter.  You are the stalker.  You are the night.  Victory—and its rewards—lie entirely within your grasp.

Yet for all your skill, there’s one thing that only experience can teach you.  It’s a lesson you haven’t yet internalized, because as you come upon a clearing, you make a fatal mistake.  You forget to look up.

Momentum carries you to the ground as your quarry lands on you from out of the blue skies.  Taloned feet that are nothing but scaly skin, bones, and tendons wrap around your midsection.  Your weapon’s been knocked from your grasp, and the hunt is over.  You’ve lost.  The grip around your waist tightens.

Strix mantles wings above you.  He’s a gorgeous bird, with aquiline beak and tan feathers fading to a gorgeous cream across his chest.  That beak is opened in a silent laugh at your fate as he crouches above you.  The toes around you shift, and one of his feet smothers your crotch, gripping you tight through your jeans.  Everyone else wore clothes out here today, but Strix—being Strix—has gone completely au naturale.  It messed up his feathers, he’d said.  Couldn’t fly with flappy fabric all around.  He stands over you, triumphant in his nakedness, and aims his own crossbow down at your head.

-Donk!-  The foam dart smacks your cheek.

“Asshole!”  You complain up at him, but he stands unmoved by your exclamation.  Instead, his foot squeezes tighter, and you squirm in effort not to show how the taloned toe digging between your thighs is affecting you.  “No head shots!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”  He drawls out his fake apology.  “Next time I land on you and pin you to the ground, I’ll find somewhere else to land the coup de gras, shall I?”

Fucker, he knows what he’s doing to you.  That toe of his digs up further, while his other digits slide up beneath your t-shirt.  You can feel his talon tapping against the underside of your tail, and the subtly-scaled bare skin of his foot rubbing your belly.  You try to move, but his other foot pins your back to the earthy-scented ground.

It’s a good thing that birds are built light.  For all of Strix’s musculature, you can still breathe easily with all of his body weight on your chest.  Which is good, because he’s got you breathing heavily with the way his scaled talon-toes dig between your legs.

“Hey, beaky!  Seen our last target?”

You hear your friends calling from above the undergrowth.  They must not be able to see you down here.

Strix’s toes curl.  You gasp as your crotch is squeezed.  You feel talons against your thighs beneath your shorts.  You’re out in public here—he can’t possibly be-

“No idea.  They must be hiding somewhere.  Keep your eyes open, yeah?”

Apparently, he is going to do it, even out here in the forest with your friends just ten steps away—from the sound of their voices.  Those evil toes crawl up between your pelt and your clothes, and you bite your tongue on another moan before you’re heard.  The scaled skin of his foot feels wonderful, cool wherever it touches you beneath your underwear.  Oh, fuck.  He has to know what he’s doing to you.

“You hear that?”  That’s Zack.  Please, don’t come any closer.  You don’t want him to see you on the ground like this.  Your tongue feels sore from biting, so you lift your hand to bite that instead.

“Must be your imagination.  Come on, go find them!  I’ve got two kills to your one, slacker!”  Strix taunts.

Zack pauses.  “You’ve only got one.  You get another when we weren’t looking?”

The talons over your crotch convulse.  No, don’t tell them.  It’s already bad enough you got caught.  You’d never hear the end of it if they caught you beneath Strix like this.  “My mistake.  I must have miscounted.”  Strix’s voice is flat, but while the rest of your friends are probably thinking about what a bird-brain he is, you can feel his sarcasm.  You can also feel his talons sliding against your crotch fur while his foot rubs against you directly.

“Well, get a wing up!  The round’s over once we find them, and we could get in another before the sun gets too low.”

Strix pulls his talons from beneath your shorts and lifts them to his beak.  Apparently you were getting it a bit sticky.  “Awww, can’t handle them without me in the sky?”  He drops his foot again, and this time he goes directly for the goods.  Your back arches up off of the forest floor as his talons slide up under your shorts leg and the torturous bliss continues.

“Fine!”  Zack complains, and you hear their footsteps tramping away through the forest.  Finally, once they’re far enough away, you take your paw away and finally let out the moan you’ve been holding in the whole time.  Zack looks down at you, beady bird eyes inscrutable and beak clacking as you try to push up against his talons.

He’s relentless, and in just moments you’re too busy squirming on the ground to pay him much mind.  His foot squeezes and presses, and you’re powerless to resist.

Strix gives another clack of his beak, then lets out a soft chortling sound as he feels you shivering beneath him.  You didn’t think to bring a change of underwear.  Who would have thought you’d need it?  Well, now you’re stuck. The bird on you lifts his talons from your shorts again, and this time you can see the results of your passion strung between his toes.  He licks it again, and then you feel pressure on your chest as he crouches, pushes off, and takes to the sky.  The down-draft from his wings pins you to the ground momentarily, and then you’re free again.  You hobble to your feet, though your knees are still weak.  Working or not, you clench your knees together to keep your shorts from dripping down your leg.  You scan the skies, but Strix is gone.

Story by Kandrel