Male satyr (Kieran) x female reader - Part Five (sfw) (Patreon)

Whuff, ok, well, who still remembers Kieran? A couple of you do at least, I know. He's October's monster from last year, and you can catch up on all the parts of his story here -  Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four. Sorry it's taken me so long to post the last chapter!

Last time we had just left the festivities with Kieran, only for him to freeze and hiss out a warning that there was a gnoll nearby... In this final chapter of the story, there's some violence, but it's got a happy ending, and even another inter-species relationship... It's also sfw.

You called magic to your hands, the lightning you trusted coming easily and crackling in a large ball in front of you.

The undergrowth rustled and you heard the unsteady footfalls of a large animal just back in the trees. Then, forcing its way through the tangled brambles, a huge gnoll just fell out onto the snow, landing face first with a terrible whine.

Kieran held his bow at full draw, fletchings to his cheek, but it was you who spotted all the blood. “Kieran wait,” you snapped. “Look… They’re hurt…”

“So? They’re about to be dead,” he snarled.

“No!” you cried, darting forwards.

With his hands occupied by holding his bow, Kieran couldn't grab you, but he still tried, yelling your name in desperate fear.

The gnoll was lying on her side, breathing in shallow, rasping pants. As you neared her, she opened and eye and you slowed, holding your hands up, lighting vanishing with a crackle and a pop. “I’m not going to hurt you,” you said quietly.

“Please,” she croaked. “Help me.” Her honey coloured fur was matted and covered in burrs and thorns, and blood oozed out onto the snow around her where she’d fallen. It was then that you saw the mess that was her back leg.

“It was a hunter’s trap,” she sobbed as she saw you looking at it. “Please… I hardly managed to get it open enough to get free of it…”

“Easy,” you crooned. “I want your word that you’re not going to attack…”

“Oh gods, no,” she wheezed. “I wouldn’t. Please… It hurts so much… I can’t… Please… Help me.”

Her left hind paw was such a bloody mess that the sight of it almost sent the contents of your stomach spilling out all over the snow, but you found a sense of detachment and managed to summon your healing magics to you.

Kieran growled your name and demanded that you step back, but when you ignored him, he darted over and yanked you reeling by the elbow. “Have you lost your mind?” he hissed, furious.

“She’s hurt, Kieran!” you said, incredulous. “I can’t just leave her like this!”

“She’s a gnoll!” he countered hotly, nocking his arrow again, staring unblinkingly with its tip still aimed straight at her.

You stepped bravely in front of that arrow, and stared him down. “And I’m a human, remember,” you said evenly. “You will not hurt her,” you said, sounding much calmer than you felt. “She’s done nothing wrong, and she needs help.”

The instant you had stepped into the line of the arrow, he instinctively eased the string and stepped back, lowering it to the ground. His eyes were wide and his usually-tanned skin had gone white with shock and anger, but you turned away from him instantly and back to the gnoll when she let out a pitiful yelp and another whine of pain. Once you fought more to keep control of your stomach at the sight of her injuries.

The magic, mercifully, bleached everything out as you worked, knitting everything back together as it should have been. The aftereffects of the spell left you both giddy, but the gnoll began to sob with exhaustion and relief the moment it was all over.

“Shh,” you said the moment you’d steadied yourself, and stroked her fur between her large, dark ears. It was thick as a wolf’s pelt, but incredibly soft. “There, you’re alright.”

“I’m so tired,” she whispered, barley able to move her jaw to speak. Snow covered her muzzle and began to collect in her ruff as a gentle flurry started up again. She cracked an eye open again and gazed at you. Her eyes were breathtakingly unusual - one blue and one brown. “Thank you,” she smiled. “Thank you so much.”

You continued to stroke her head while Kieran just stood there, stunned and horrified, and honestly a little disgusted, the arrow still nocked even if the bowstring was slack.

“What were you doing out here?” you asked her gently. “Are you alone?”

She nodded. “I left my clan months ago. It’s just me. There are others around, but they’re strangers to me.” She tried to sit up but her arms shook and gave way.

“Easy,” you said with a smile. “Take a moment.” In fact, you could use the time to recover as well, since your own head was pounding and your vision was still more than a little blurry. “When you’ve caught your breath, you can come and stay in my cabin.”

That seemed one step too far for Kieran. “Absolutely not!” the satyr fired, taking a reluctant step forwards, the fire rekindling in him. “I forbid it.”

“You forbid it?” you asked, shocked. It was not Kieran’s voice that you’d heard ‘forbidding you’, but that of your former master. The memory of it threatened to eclipse all reason and sense in you. You rose and spun on him in a rush, glaring at him, aghast. “How dare you forbid it?!” you thundered. “You have no right to forbid me to do anything!”

He seemed taken aback by the fury in your voice, but he ground his jaw. “She’s still a gnoll,” he said, more softly this time. “Please, I can’t protect you from her…”

You took a deep breath and turned back to her as she began to push herself upright. Finally she managed to ease herself into a seated position reminiscent of a dog sitting to attention, and she watched in silence as you and Kieran argued.

“Kieran, I don’t need protecting. She can sleep in the cabin, and I’ll come back to the tent with you.” After a heated pause you added petulantly, “If you’ll still have me, that is…”

He scowled deeply. “Of course I will,” he snapped. “What kind of question is that?”

“I don’t want to be a bother,” the gnoll interrupted, heaving herself up onto all fours. “I really… I just… I heard… I head the music and thought…” She seemed on the verge of tears, her large eyes glistening. “I’m sorry. I’ll go.”

She turned and staggered a few paces into the darker thickets beyond, but you called after her. Just as she turned back at the sound of your shout, her strange, mismatching eyes rolled and she collapsed sideways, exhausted.

“Now what?” Kieran murmured, disgusted.

Your mind was racing, but you schooled yourself to stillness. “Adair,” you said after a moment. “He can carry her to the cabin.”

“Gnoll are pretty heavy…” Kieran said, clearly still deeply unhappy with the plan to keep her in your house.

You cocked an eyebrow. “Have you seen Adair? Besides, she’s pretty skinny under all that fluff,” you said. “And not in a good way. She’s had it tough, Kieran.”

“I don’t like it,” he grumbled.

Taking a step closer to him, you looked up into his big dark eyes and found them brimming with worry. “I know,” you said. “But I’ve got a good feeling about her…”

Kieran sucked in a huge breath and let it out slowly through gritted teeth, puffing his cheeks out and shaking his head. “When you collapsed after healing Rose… I… I was so scared for you. You were hardly moving… I felt like it was all my fault, like… if I’d just had the courage to move, to stop that gnoll from attacking… I could have done more, and you wouldn't have had to give so much of yourself… I didn’t know if you were going to be alright.”

He looked so vulnerable, and he even began to tremble a little. Sensing that he needed to get this out, you stood silently and let him spill his fears to the night.

“I’ve never felt like this about anyone, and if… if anything were to…” He choked up and turned his face away. His body followed a heartbeat later, and he was unable to go on talking.

You reached tentatively out for his arm and squeezed. “Kieran,” you said gently, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. “I can’t leave her like this. I’ll be back, alright? Just… watch her… please?”

He nodded grimly, and as you walked away, back to the fire in search of Adair, you caught Kieran wiping his nose on the back of his wrist and snuffling once. The depth of his feelings struck you to the core, and while you were obviously angry with him for not trusting your instincts - and for trying to forbid you from doing something - you couldn't help but be touched by his actions all the same. He’d lost his father, and he’d fought gnoll raiding parties for almost all his adult life. His reaction had been understandable, if not exactly welcome.

Adair looked up from where he was chatting with a couple of cervitaurs as you approached, and something flickered across his face at the sight of your expression.

“Can I borrow you for a moment?” you asked quietly, and he excused himself immediately.

“What’s wrong?” the big, blond minotaur said the instant you were out of earshot of the others.

Taking a breath for courage, you began to explain, and he hurried along by your side, eager to help out and yet reluctant to offend anyone in the herd by aiding a gnoll. When he saw the gnoll lying in the snow with Kieran standing over her, arrow still nocked and staring intently at the prone, motionless figure, Adair edged forwards and knelt by her side. He scooped her up immediately and gasped. “She’s… She’s lighter than a harpy feather,” he exclaimed softly. “Poor lass…”

Kieran growled something indistinct, but he followed you and Adair as the minotaur bore your new friend away towards the cabin.

“Set her down in my bed,” you instructed him the moment he’d shaken the snow off his colossal hooves. He knew the little house well enough by now and headed inside without a word.

Before you could follow him, Kieran shot out a hand and latched onto your arm. “I don’t like this,” he said.

“I gathered,” you replied archly. “Look, I’m just trying to help. I know that that fact doesn’t add up with what you know about humans, but we’re not all like the ones that took your father, Kieran. And maybe not every gnoll out there wants to tear your folk limb from limb either. Give her a chance, will you?”

“And what if that chance costs you your life? Or someone else’s?” he said hotly. “What if once she’s recovered she decides to go hunting in the morning, and it’s Rose’s body you find lying in the snow? Or mine?”

Before you could snap anything back at him, Adair reappeared in the doorway. “She’s all tucked up,” he said, trying to be jovial and missing by a mile. “Look, if it worries you, I’ll stay here tonight. You two can go off back to the herd. Someone should tell Hawthorn and Adder…”

“I don’t like putting you in danger, Adair,” Kieran said, but the young minotaur only laughed.

“I’m a hundred times bigger than her,” he chuckled. “Besides, I know a thing or two about taking care of myself, don’t you worry. You two go back to the fire, tell the elders what’s happened, and then send Dolen over here as well. We’ll watch her, and you can come back and see how she’s doing in the morning.”

“Thank you,” you murmured, your voice cracking. “Come, Kieran. Let’s go.”

You turned him away from your hut and the two of you walked back to the gathered herd.

Kieran barely spoke to you that night as you curled up together in the tent that he was sharing with his mother for the winter, and as he slid in beside you, he hesitated just a moment before laying his arm over your waist and tugging you into his body. He was so deliciously warm, and you let him hold you, hugging you tightly. He began to nuzzle gently at your neck, finally letting out a soft sigh, and kissing you just once on the side of your head. “I’m sorry,” he breathed, and you felt some of the tension leave him.

“It’s alright,” you whispered back. “I’m sorry too.” His mother was still out enjoying the tail end of the celebrations, but this still seemed like a conversation for hushed tones.

“No,” he growled. “It isn’t alright. I behaved like some possessive, rutting male back then. You have a good heart, and I behaved appallingly. I should have supported you.”

“You don’t have to agree with everything I do,” you said evenly. “It could have gone badly - heck, it still could - but yeah, you don’t have to try and outright forbid things either…” You shuffled a little and then added, “I could have been a little more understanding too.”

Kieran said nothing, but left another kiss in your hair.

“My former master, the mage I spent my apprenticeship with, tried to control me,” you said very quietly. Kieran’s body tensed again, but he remained silent. “It started with little things, but it escalated. By the end, I didn’t have any freedom, and he was going to bind me so that my power would become his, and I’d become little more than a drooling husk or something.” You took a deep breath and let it go in a rush. “Turns out I don’t really like being told what to do…”

“I can see why,” Kieran murmured, adding a heartbeat later, “I’m sorry.”

It was a while before you slid into sleep, wondering what the gnoll’s name was, and how she was faring with Adair and Dolen to watch over her. What had happened to her to make her leave her clan? Gnolls -especially females - were notoriously clan-orientated, and to leave must have been a wrench for her.

When dawn finally came, it was followed hot on the heels by a stirring through the camp. Kieran woke with a start, ears pricked, and in the blink of an eye he had shot out of the tent, bow in hand and belting his quiver around his dark-furred, but otherwise naked, waist. You followed suit a moment later after stuffing your boots on and grabbing a cloak.

You stumbled out of the tent to see the gnoll from the night before walking towards the camp, flanked on either side by Adair and Dolen. Her ears were back and her mismatching eyes were huge with anxiety as she approached, but there was a fragile determination to her inexorable forward progress, and you felt a surge of pride for this creature whom you barely knew.

Sensing that she could use a friendly face, you stepped a pace forwards out of the line of nervous fauns, satyrs, centaurs, cervitaurs, and other forest-dwellers who had emerged as the news spread through the camp. Her gaze found you instantly, and she let out a visible breath of relief.

“Hey,” you mouthed silently, still a little way off.

Her answering smile was wiped off her face as Elders Hawthorn and Adder joined you, looking serious. They turned to face the gathered folk and Hawthorn glanced once at you. Under the force of that gaze you recalled your conversation from the previous night all too clearly. He had not been pleased with you, though Adder had been intrigued about the gnoll.

Hawthorn cleared his throat and said, “This gnoll was injured last night, and was healed by the human mage. Adair and Dolen have been watching her, and now it seems she has come to make herself known to us.” He looked sideways at her, and she nodded.

“May I step forward and speak?” she asked, her voice husky and a little tremulous.

“You may,” he grunted.

“Thank you,” she said before looking around. “I realise that gnolls, especially those in these parts, do not have a good reputation -” she began, but she was cut off by a shout from the crowd.

“With good reason!” someone yelled.

“They butchered my sister!” someone else spat.

Her large, round ears swivelled back and she dropped her head, eyes screwing shut for a moment.

“I’m truly sorry to hear that,” she said. “But I had no part in any of that. My name is Gerta. I come from a large clan about seventy miles east of here,” she said. “I’ve been travelling for months, looking for a place where I can settle down and live a quieter life. Last night, after running for three days without a break, I was exhausted, and I stepped into a hunter’s trap. Without the help of this mage,” she gestured at you, “I would have died for certain.”

She paused and sighed.

“I’m sure that some of you would rather I had, but I was helped, and I would very much like to stay here, at least for a little while. When I’ve got my strength back, I could help to keep you safe, go on patrols, hunt with those of you who eat meat… You would be in no danger from me, I swear it, but…” she swallowed thickly, tail rammed between her short, muscular legs, “But I understand if you don’t want to trust me. I’ll move on today if that’s what you’d prefer.”

You glanced from her dejected face to Adair’s and found him looking deeply uncomfortable. He shot a look at his brother, and he nodded subtly. Whatever unspoken sentiments had passed between the two minotaurs, you weren’t sure, but the minotaurs stood firm behind her as she looked at the herds gathered in the wintering grounds.

Elder Hawthorn looked like he might just be about to refuse her flat out, but instead he said, “We shall put it to a vote.”

There was no way she’d win a vote like that, so you stepped forwards. “Might I say something first, Elder Hawthorn?” you asked respectfully.

The faun looked surprised, but he nodded tersely.

“Thank you.” Drawing in a deep breath, you faced the crowd, ignoring the hammering of your heart against your ribs as best you could. “Look, I’m no good at speeches or anything, and I’m not suggesting that you have to adopt Gerta into your own families or have her in your tents, but I would like to remind you that when some of you in Elder Hawthorn’s herd first met me, a mage, you were understandably wary. You didn’t want me to stay with you, and I get that. Humans do not have a great reputation either, but you took a chance with me. Kieran took a chance on me too, and he has made me the happiest woman alive. Kieran, who has more reason than perhaps any of you to hate humans and distrust us, set all that aside and gave me a chance. That’s all I’m asking; give Gerta a chance to prove herself. She can stay with me at my cabin, but show her the kindness that she deserves and maybe has never had. Please…”

Some of the centaurs shifted nervously, stamping hooves, and one or two of the cervitaurs shook their heads, but it was Kieran’s mother who stepped forwards into the silence. “I’d like her to stay,” she said. “Humans took my husband, Kieran’s father, from me simply because his horns were black and rare and would fetch a good price. I don’t know of anything so cruel, and yet this girl makes my boy smile again like he did when he was a child.”

Tears welled up in your eyes and you mouthed ‘thank you’ at Nieve, who nodded once and smiled.

Hawthorn sighed and called out, “Those in favour of allowing this gnoll to remain here with us on probationary terms, under the watchful eyes of either my scouts or our two minotaurs, raise your hands.”

At first your stomach dropped when only Nieve’s hand rose straight and sure as a young birch tree into the air. But then when Kieran himself raised his hand, shortly followed - to your astonishment - by Ulfric and the other scouts, you couldn’t believe your eyes. Rosa’s hand went up next, then Robin’s, and then Adder’s. Slowly a few more hands rose, and it became evident that Gerta was being given her chance.

She fell forwards into the snow on all fours with a choked whimper. “Thank you,” she gasped, head bowed low. “I won’t let you down. Thank you.”

Your eyes met Kieran's, and he fixed you with a steady look, face mostly neutral. He nodded once, and then turned away, slipping through the crowd and out into the forest. He needed time alone, and you understood that now. He would come back to you when he had reasoned his way through everything. He’d been through a lot of change in the time you’d been together, and this was another thing he had to come to terms with.

You went with Gerta and Adair back to the cabin, giving the gnoll her space as well. When you got there, you asked, “How’s your leg?”

“It’s stiff,” she said, glancing down at her hind leg, “But it’s so much better. Thank you again.”

“I’m glad it mended alright. I was worried for a while… Now,” you went on as you stared at the front door of your cabin. “We’re going to have to find you a bed.”

“Oh, I’ll sleep on the floor by the fire,” she grinned. “That’s fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll find you some bedding,” you insisted. “Come on, let’s go inside and talk. Adair, you coming as well? I think I’ve got some of Robin’s cider if you’re interested?”

“If I wasn’t before, I am now!” the big minotaur laughed. “After you, Gerta,” he added, waving her inside with an expansive gesture.

The three of you spent much of the day together, and even talked late into the night, and you learned a little more about her. Gerta didn’t talk much about her life with her former clan, but from what you could gather, it was a brutal existence, and one for which she was definitely not cut out. She had ranked the lowest of the females, refusing to treat the clan males as little more than studs for mating and babysitters for pups, and had eventually left under the cover of darkness. She had run for four days, knowing she would be hunted down, and killed if they caught her. That had marked her long journey west, and had brought her eventually to that hunter’s trap, and to you.

The days passed, and the worst of the winter weather set in. Gerta became a permanent fixture in your cabin, and even Kieran learned to accept her presence. Funnily enough, she and Kieran had the same, dry sense of humour, and one evening you emerged from the cabin, expecting to find Kieran returning from his evening patrol, only to find the two of them sharing a laugh on the veranda. You smiled and left them to it.

Gerta grew in strength and stamina, putting on the muscle that she’d lost during her long flight from her clan, but she remained at the periphery of herd life, rarely joining in at communal feasts and preferring to return to your cabin after patrolling with Ulfric and the others. To your surprise, you noticed how close she and Ulfric were getting, often going out alone on patrols.

As the first hints of cherry blossom began to blush on the branches of the forest’s trees, and a few of the various different herds who had come together for the winter began to think about separating, Gerta faced her first real test.

Ulfric’s horn blasted a warning from the edge of the camp that had everyone scuttling towards the light of the fire and reaching for knives and weapons. Three short blasts, followed by one long, followed by three more short blasts.

“Gnoll,” Kieran growled, tensing and readying his bow. He kissed you on the cheek and then stepped into the shadows at the edge of the camp, and his dark clothing and black pelt were swallowed up almost instantly by the night.

Gerta, who had not been out with Ulfric that night, was on her feet in an instant, the weighty battle axe that Adair had adapted for her swinging in her left hand. Her sonorous growling filled the air and a few of the fauns stepped in close behind her, little Rose among them.

Her lips peeled back and she trotted a few paces forwards, gesturing at the others to stay behind. In the dark, with her leather jerkin on, she looked truly formidable. A high-pitched, mocking cackle drifted across the melting snow of the meadow, and a collective shiver ran through the group at the sound of it.

“Finally,” a thin, reedy voice whined. “Finally, I have found where you’re all hiding.”

“Gerta, do you know her?” Hawthorn asked in a hiss.

“No,” she said, snuffing the air. “Her scent is unfamiliar to me.”

The laughing continued, high and tinged with madness. “You think you’re safe with that little cub to protect you?” she said.

Immediately, Gerta snarled and said, “You think you’re safe, coming here alone?”

“I had no choice!” she spat, and in the darkness you could see her figure now. She was tall, but gaunt. “You lot took my clan from me last autumn and shipped them off to the town to be treated like animals!”

Gerta stepped forwards, and from behind the advancing gnoll, now clearly visible in the firelight, you saw Ulfric and three other scouts. Kieran was nowhere to be seen, but you knew he’d have an arrow aimed directly at the gnoll. Ulfric sneered, “If you hadn’t attacked us and treated us like prey, then we wouldn’t have had to, would we?”

“Silence, goat-legs!” she snapped, foam dripping from her jaws. “I’ll enjoy sinking my teeth into that haunch of yours!” she cackled.

Gerta lost it.

She flew forwards, and the ensuing fight was brutal.

It was all over in a flurry of flying snow and fur and blood, but Gerta emerged triumphant, bearing only a few scratches. Ulfric dropped his knife and crossed to her. She still had blood and fur between her huge teeth, and as she spat it out into the melting snow and washed her mouth out, Ulfric muttered just loud enough that only you and a few others nearby could hear, “You’re the only one sinking their teeth into me…”

She laughed a free and happy laugh and picked him up, nuzzling her cheek against him. “I need to clean up,” she said. “Let’s get rid of this mongrel first,” she added.

Dolen appeared a moment later, huge and hulking in the dark. “Everything alright?” the massive minotaur asked.

Adair stood beside him and added, “We turn in for the night and all the excitement kicks off! Everyone alright though?”

The stronger folks amongst the group saw to the disposal of the stray female’s body, and just as they had begun their task, a touch at your elbow made you jump.

Kieran had materialised out of the darkness again, his eyes shining. “Are you alright?” he asked softly.

You nodded, and he swept you up into his arms, holding you close, his hand on the back of your head. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you so much. And you were right about her.”

“Seems like you’re not the only one with a taste for the ‘enemy’,” you grinned, pulling back slightly to get a better look at his face.

His gaze drifted to where Ulfric and Gerta were standing in a similar pose, and he shook his head. “I can’t believe it. I’ve never met anyone more against the gnolls than he is. But… I’m glad he’s happy.”

“And you?” you asked, kissing him briefly on the lips and catching him by surprise. “Are you happy?”

He growled softly and said, “That gnoll may be our hero tonight, but she’s going to have to find somewhere else to sleep. Tonight, you’re all mine.”

Ulfric and Gerta were nowhere to be seen now anyway, disappearing together into the forest like shadows.

“Come on then,” you said, taking his hand and leading him back towards your cabin.

***

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