This file is a part of Elf Sternberg's Collected Works on ASSTR.  The
complete archive of Elf's work can be found on his website at:

http://www.drizzle.com/~elf

The author can be contacted at:

mailto:elf@drizzle.com

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                                Fleabitten

Journal Entry 200 / 00681

Erwer, Yavar 05, 00681

"Priss, stop squirming," I said, trying to keep my frustration at bay. "I
can't do this if you keep moving."

"But it hurts," she complained. I sighed and took the comb once again
to her back. Ember smiled at me said, "Want me to do it?"

"No, that's okay." I sighed, remembering just how the present problem
had started.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

"So what's the problem?" Rhys asked patiently. I had asked him because
P'nyssa couldn't figure it out.

"We've got something weird in the castle, Rhys. The kids are all
scratching, the skins are starting to have these weird rashes. Everybody's
itching. Sometimes they bleed, they scratch so hard."

"Where are the rashes appearing?"

"Mostly on the legs of skins, but the furries are all over."

Rhys thought for a moment, then smiled. Then he began to laugh. "What's
so funny?" I asked.

"You don't need a doctor, Ken. What you need is an exterminator. You've
got fleas!"

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

So here I am, tiny comb in hand, trying to get the single fleas out
of Priss's fur before we dunk her in the flea dip. To my left Kimmie
is running a similar tiny-toothed comb over Mitch's fur. Although
technically Kimmie had agreed only to stay until Mitch and his brother
and sister were two, four years later she was still here. And for that
I was happy. Kimmie is a playful woman, and I respect her immensely.

This was my third grooming today. I had one more to do after this, an
adult, which wasn't so bad, but already I had done David and Michelle, and
now Ember's sister, Priss. This was not the high point of my day. I love
Priss, dearly I do. But we've got seven children in the house ranging from
ten to six years old and they're going to drive me crazy, and I really
did not need to do a complete de-fleaing of the household right about now.

What was worse was that I was desperately trying to keep my emotions
in check. David was only a six-year-old Pamthreat, and Michelle a
seven-year-old Centaur, but Priss, at ten years old, was just starting to
show in her Felinzi body the hints of beauty that were hers to inherit
from her mother and father. Her fur pattern was more symmetrical than
Ember's. There was also more black to it, small diamonds of white
streaking down from her ears around the tops of her eyes, a large white
patch along her spine, losing symmetry around her buttocks- only one was
whited. Both her feet were white. It looked like she was wearing socks.

But what kept bothering me was the irrational desires that I had to
constantly fight down. As I ran the comb over her tight, youthful
buttocks, I gritted my teeth and concentrated, grabbing the little
blood-suckers as they climbed over the comb and crushing them between
thumb and forefinger. When I was finished, I sighed a sigh of relief; at
least she had no prominent breasts yet, and it was time to do her front.
Her chest and belly were easy to do- straightforward and relatively
smooth. It was when I was between her legs and doing her pubic region
that was truly hell.

Dammit, I am not going to even think those thoughts! But of course,
I did anyway. Why was I cursed with such a good sense of smell?

"Uncle Ken?" Priss asked.

"Yeah, Empress?" I replied, using her nickname. I got the feeling that,
unlike 'Ember,' Priss would always be known just as 'Priss.'

"Are you okay?"

"Just concentrating, sweetheart. Now hush."

"'Kay," she replied. Temptation is a bitch, and every flick of the comb
brought maddening temptation to my vision. My hands, my fingers were
mere millimeters away from her womanhood. Girlhood. Dammit!

"Ember?" I said.

"Want me to take over?" she asked.

"Please?" I said. She took the comb from my hands and took my place,
finishing what I had started and then working her way down her sister's
thighs. I walked over to the wall Ember had been leaning against and
sat on the floor. Other than the two grooming tables, the room had no
furniture. It was one of the last rooms in the Castle to not undergo
decontamination procedures. It and my apartment, which held most of the
adults of Castle Shardik, grooming each other, pairing down to the point
where Kimmie and I would do the last pair. Not being furred (at least,
not much), we wouldn't have to take the dip.

"Okay, Priss, up and out," Ember said. I looked up just in time to see
Priss walk to the far end of the room and jump on the portable SDisk
we had set up in one corner to take the ones we were done with to the
beach and a date with flea dip. I smiled.

Ember looked over at me and said, "You okay?"

I blew a long, whistling breath and said, "I will be. I'm sorry, Ember,
but I just had to get out of there."

"What's wrong?" she asked, standing up from the grooming bench and walking
over to me. She crouched down, still on her feet, her hand on my knee.

My face flushed hot, and I said, "Ember, I hope you won't get mad at me,
but I needed you to take over or else I was going to start touching
Priss in a less than fatherly way. I don't know why I feel this way,
either, and that bothers me."

Ember lowered her voice until it was just barely above a whisper. "You
mean you wanted to touch her sexually." No question, no accusation. Just
fact. And the whisper was more for Mitch's benefit than Kimmie's.

I nodded, my face feeling hotter. "I'm sorry," I said.

She put her paw on my shoulder and said, "For what? You did what you
always taught me to do- weigh your choices and decide when it's time to
get out. Isn't that right, Father?" Her voice took on a tinge of growl,
just like she had had when she was much younger herself.

I smiled and nodded. "I know, I did the right thing." I waved a hand in
the air and said, "Dammit, Ember, I like touching people. I'm a very
sensual person. But I can't do that without permission. So I like to
be sure I have permission." She watched me intently as I spoke. "So
here I am, with your sister, who's not old enough to understand what
her sexuality really is, who's not old enough to understand what that
permission is, and I was having trouble keeping from crossing the line.
Dammit, I can wait five years, can't I, and let her make her own
decisions? What's wrong with me?"

From the other side of the room I heard Kimmie say, "Okay, Mitch, out
you go." The little six-legged cub leapt across the floor for the SDisk.
Actually, Mitch isn't so little anymore. Of Karen's three kids, he's
the biggest. I can barely carry him.

Kimmie rose from the grooming couch and walked over to where Ember and
I sat. "You gonna be okay?" she asked.

"I thought Ember just asked that. Yeah, I'm gonna be okay." Ember rose,
walked over to the couches and picked up the grooming combs to dunk them
into the sterilizer.

As she did, Kimmie put her hand on my knee and said, "I understand how
you feel."

"Do you?" I asked.

"Sure I do. I understand lust." Her voice held an amused tint. "It's
okay to feel the way you do. Children are different, and if there's one
thing you're enamored of, it's differences. Why else do you chase after
me?" She smiled and her teeth were beautifully white. Kimmie's short,
only 145 cents, and she's overweight. Blonde, deeply tanned, her skin
is perfectly smooth, and I think she's gorgeous. Her face is cherubic,
but more than that, she's rounded and soft and squeezable and the only
way I can ever think to describe is that she's one of the smallest,
sexiest examples of human womanhood I've had the pleasure of crawling
into bed with. Both her breasts and her ass are oversized, but they're
still perfectly smooth, squeezable. Okay, enough. She's perfect just
the way she is.

"But if there's one thing I shouldn't be attracted to, it's them! I mean,
they're children."

"And as long as you remember that, you're going to be okay."

"Besides," Ember said, returning with a glass in hand, "You've raised
dozens of children in here. Hundreds, I think. Have you had these
feelings before?"

"Sure, but never like... like that!" I said.

"Situation, Ken. You've been in the lagoon swimming with the children
lots of times, and they're naked then. But that's a playful and public
situation. Temptation doesn't get to you then. You're under a lot of
stress today. It hasn't been a great day, Father, you of all people should
know. And the total concentration you were putting on Sis probably put
a Hell of a strain on you. Forget about it. You had a normal reaction
and took responsible steps."

I sighed. "I wish I could forget that easily."

Kimmie wiggled a little closer to me, pressing herself against my side,
and whispered, "I'll help you forget."

"Oh, you will, will you?" I said in a low reply.

"Uh-huh," she said. I was so busy staring into her sweet green eyes that
I didn't know what Ember was up to until I felt her paw run along the
seam of my shorts. "Look, Kimmie, he's still hard."

"I'm not surprised," she said, leaning over and nibbling on my ear.

I hissed and said, "We've got a lot to do. Salta and Aaden are waiting
for us."

"So?" Ember said, looking at me. Her slitted eyes were positively glowing
with laughter. "We need a break. And you're going to help." She reached
down and pulled one of the strings on my shorts. The knot gave way and
my fly opened. Actually, considering how hard I was, that was something
of a relief.

"How long a break?" I asked.

"Long as it takes," Ember replied, pulling the lacing off of my shorts
and freeing my erection. She lay down between my legs and in one smooth
motion swallowed my cock. The sudden warmth surrounding my sex made me
inhale sharply with pleasure.

"I suppose a break isn't a bad idea," I said in one long breath. "Hmm?" I
said to Kim, wiggling my eyebrows. Ember's Felinzi muzzle wrapped around
my cock was as talented as ever. I leaned over to kiss Kimmie, biting
her lower lip softly. Kimmie's always claimed that she could never visit
Rhysh, but I swear she's got the makings of a wonderful bottom in her.

Kimmie's doesn't open her mouth very far when she kisses, and that's
something I've always found frustrating. But I do adore her. I kissed
her well-tanned cheeks, my right hand stroking Ember's head, my left
hand around Kimmie's shoulder and reaching into the collar of her
loosely-fitted and oversized T-shirt to pinch her nipples between
my fingers.

Ember sucked my cock as Kimmie and I got further into a serious kissing
match, both my hand reaching under her shirt to play with her firm
breasts.

"Kimmie," Ember said, raising off of my waving erection. Kimmie stopped
kissing me and looked down. Ember shook her head as if to suggest
something silently, but I had no idea what, and Kimmie smiled and nodded.

"Okay, Ken," she said, "Onto the grooming bench."

"What?"

"Over there. Now." My, my, I thought. Never thought I'd see Kimmie giving
orders. At least not to adults.

"By your command," I said with a smile, rising and sitting on the grooming
bench closest to the door. It was a low, long bench covered in an ugly
greenish vinyl, wide enough to hold an Uncia.

"Lie down on your back," she said. I complied, lying down on the bench as
if I were preparing for a grooming myself. Ember crawled onto the bench
with me, a big smile playing over her muzzle. She straddled my hips,
grabbed my cock and with one slow motion sank down onto my erection. I
sighed, closing my eyes with pleasure. I reached forward and placed
my hands on her furry thighs, enjoying the soft sensations of her
black-and-white fur against my hips, legs, body. She smiled down at me,
not moving, just holding my cock inside her.

The bench creaked gently, and I felt the thin padding deform slightly as
Kimmie climbed onto the bench by my head. I looked up through my already
sweaty hair and said "Hello."

"Hi," she said with that beautiful smile. She crawled up and straddled
my head, not quite in reach. I raised my head to reach her cunny and she
pushed me down. "Ah,ah," she said. "You've got two choices, Ken. Either
you can leave your hands where they are, and you won't be able to move
them much, or you can put them over your head."

I thought about it for a few seconds. The distraction made my cock soften
slightly. Ember gave me one mercy stroke, and that got my attention again.
"I'll leave them where they are."

"Good," Kimmie said impishly. She slowly eased herself down, bending over
to put at least some of her weight on her arms, until her cunt was easily
in reach of my tongue. She pushed her hips back a little further until
she had almost literally shoved her pussy in my face. I dug in, quickly
burying myself in her womanhood, tasting and smelling. I concentrated on
her clitoris, but in the position I was in I also found myself digging
deep between her lips, tasting her juices fresh from her. Ember began
stroking my cock again with surprising speed.

Kimmie pushed herself up, her hips pivoting, sliding her cunny over
my lips and chin and out of reach. I strained for it as Kimmie settled
herself further down onto my face, pushing her asshole against my lips.

If that's what she wanted, I was willing to give. I had little choice in
the matter, anyway. She settled back a little further, her substantial
buttocks blocking most of my sight. All I could see was the cleft of
her ass and her hair hanging down. I slid my tongue against her anus
and she sighed, "That's it, Kenny, keep it up."

It was then that I realized I couldn't breathe! I moaned against her
ass, trying to get her attention. "Just noticed, huh? I'm not getting
up until you come, Ken." I moaned again, realized they both had me where
they wanted me. I closed my eyes and concentrated on what was happening
to me, sliding my tongue around Kimmie's anus in tiny circles.

Ember began stroking harder. They had to know if I passed out, didn't
they? They had to. I hoped they did. "Stick it in," Kimmie ordered. I
obeyed her, pressing my tongue harder against her asshole. "That's it,
Kenny. Eat my asshole, just like that." I groaned silently into her flesh,
sliding my tongue around the wrinkled flesh. "Deeper," she ordered. I
tried to follow her orders.

Ember was slamming against me. I reached up with my hands to touch
Kimmie's teats, holding onto them.

"You like playing with my teats, don't you? Well, you better come soon,
Kenny. Must be running out of air, aren't you?"

I was. My head was swimming without air. Stars raced across my vision. I
was losing it, and Ember's strength was going to be for nothing. I was
passing out, I was, I was...

I was coming! Moaning again against Kimmie's skin, then gasping for air
as she nearly leapt off of me, the oxygen striking my brain with almost as
much force as my orgasm. My Felinzi daughter gave me a few more finishing
strokes, then came to a stop, sitting atop my hips, a huge smile across
her muzzle. Kimmie sat on the floor next to me. I turned my head to my
left and looked her in the eyes. "What," I gasped, "What was that?"

"You didn't like it?" she asked.

"I haven't decided yet," I said. I lay back on the bench and said,
"That's the sort of thing they do in Rhysh."

"I know," she said. "I thought you might be intrigued. What was it like?"

"It felt... dangerous. I was worried you might not know if I passed out."

"I thought I'd know. When you stopped playing with my teats or my ass
I'd know."

I nodded, still staring at the ceiling. The world was coming to a stop.
There was a quick, sharp strike of near-pain as Ember rose off my cock.
"Awww," she purred. "We would never do anything to hurt you."

I reached up and scratched her behind her ears. She mewled softly. "I
know," I said. "I know." She lay down against me on the bench. Kimmie
leaned over the two of us and hugged us both. I reached up and wrapped
my arms around them.

We lay there for a few seconds when a new voice interrupted us. "Here
we are, working and scratching ourselves to death, and the three of you
are making love!"

I looked up and saw the Mustela contingent of Shardik Castle standing
there, paws on his hips. "Sorry, Salta. We needed a break," I said.

He was unimpressed. "Hmph. Come on, come on. Break's over, then."

I looked at Ember, who covered her mouth to keep Salta from seeing her
smile. Kimmie giggled blatantly. "Okay," I groaned, righting myself into
a sitting position. "Up you go." Salta leapt up onto the bench. "Can I
dress, first?" I asked.

"Feel free," Salta asked.

I grabbed my shorts and pulled them on. "We really needed to take a pause,
Salta. For more than just work reasons."

"I didn't mean to sound curt, Shardik. But this really hurts, and I'd
really like to get it over with. Remember the time with your ear?"

"Who can forget it?" Aaden asked sardonically, looking in around the
corner. I waved.

"Who can forget?" I agreed. "As quick as we can." I retrieved the comb
and set to work on Aaden's fur. I was thankful to whoever had decided
that Salta should be one of the last people to get groomed. At 105 cents
the Mustela are the smallest species on Pendor. Less to comb. And that
would mean that Aaden, who was already purring under my brush, would be
left alone with me. Kimmie set to work finishing him as Ember excused
herself and teleported to the beach.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

When we were finished, Aaden and I teleported to the beach with the rest
of them. I ran for the ocean and dove in headfirst; Aaden had to hit the
dip first. Whatever fleas were still on me retreated to the air. At least,
that's what I hoped.

I stayed underwater for a few seconds, hoping the beasties would get
lost and leave me alone, although I knew the second I surfaced I was a
warm target in a cold sea and therefore fair game. But the salt burning
on the flea bites I already had and the feel of the ring's grit beneath
my toes as I pushed off the bottom felt wonderful, cleansing.

As I got out of the water I was immediately surrounded by a small swarm of
bumblebee-sized robots. 'Azzies' are usually used for crop pest-control,
but I'd had Josh send a few over to help with the Castle decontamination.
They were brutal little things, grabbing fleas from the air and, lacking
any sort of storage space of their own, simply shredding them.

"Hey, Ken," Paul called from over by the barbecue we had set up. I figured
an impromptu beach barbecue was the easiest way to keep the kids occupied
until the azzies were finished.

"Yeah?"

"How do you like your hamburger?"

"Rare!" I shouted back. He nodded. He wore a centaur-length apron that
said "You may KISS the cook, but do NOT pinch, fondle, or molest." I
smiled.

"Unca Ken!" a shout interrupted my musing. I was being charged my Priss
again. She jumped as she closed the distance and I caught her in my arms.
Her furry buttocks settled easily into the familiar crux of my arm.
Despite my earlier misgivings, I felt very comfortable holding her
like that.

"How ya doin, kiddo? No more itches?"

"Nope!" she smiled. "Are you gonna play Frisbee with the rest of us?"

"In a second. Go on," I said, putting her down. "I've gotta talk to
your sister."

"Okay," she said, running off down the beach.

Ember walked over to me easily and said, "See, that wasn't so bad,
was it?"

"Nope," I said, picking up Priss's speech pattern. It's an annoying
habit I have. "All it takes is the right perspective."

She kissed me on the cheek. "That's all it takes," she said quietly.

"Thanks," I said, smiling. Despite the fleas, it was going to be a good
day after all.

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Original document is available from:
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The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales
are Copyright (c) 1989-2000 Elf Mathieu Sternberg. Distribution limited
to electronic media not-for-profit use only. All other rights are reserved
to the author.
