Nobody Left Behind 4 (Patreon)

Today's scene is mostly the same as the first version. Not very exciting, I know, so instead, here's some photos of our exciting week:

Wow! It's really loud when a big tree gets blown over on top of your house. I was afraid it had sliced the house in two, but we got lucky. The tree wasn't one of the thickest and it hit at a structurally strong point.

Then, it started dripping in the dining room. We scooted stuff and added a bucket. Then, a second drip started, so we started stripping the room of possessions. Eventually, the water was just streaming in, raining harder inside than it was outside.

This photo was pretty early on. Ky has a lot of buckets for cleaning and maintaining aquariums. I have a lot of buckets for brewing. By the time we were done, we had used them all, plus our pots, a few pans, some Tupperware, and a bunch of towels. I was bailing buckets out the side door to keep them from overflowing.

But we prevailed! The tree has been chopped up and hauled off. The roof has been tarped. The rug has been dried. The fix-it guy and the insurance guy are working up their numbers, and we're waiting with bated breath to see how big a gap there is between the two.

Whee. The house is still standing. No one got hurt, and the other than the house itself, none of our possessions were damaged.

Oh well, back to the story. Sarsuk relates a story to Siki about the first gal he ever really had feelings for.

Nobody Left Behind 1
Nobody Left Behind 2
Nobody Left Behind 3

———

Sarsuk grabbed a tray and slid it along the ledge past the day’s lunch fare.

He wasn’t a bad looking guy … not fundamentally. Lots of famous krakun—billionaires, chief executives, actors even—had golden scales with turquoise highlights beneath their tympanums. And many had green eyes as well. But on Sarsuk, the effect just fell flat somehow.

His scales were a bit too large and just a shade too brown to call golden. The highlights on his horns were much more teal than turquoise, and the green in his eyes certainly didn’t match.

Then, there was his posture. The young krakun’s back slumped like someone who’d already lost—bitter and downtrodden, not aloof and haughty. All combined, he looked “common”, like a laborer, or maybe worse—unemployed. And with everyone treating him as common, it sure was hard to be more.

The commissary matrons paused their gossiping long enough for him to jab a talon toward a steamer of yellow stuff and a steamer of brown, then the gal closest to the two scooped a measure of each onto a plate and slid it beneath the sneeze guard and onto Sarsuk’s tray.

“How did you do on that prep exam?” she asked.

He shrugged his rounded shoulders. “Haven’t got it back yet, Mrs. Urreizaro,” he said without looking her in the face.

“Where’s that handsome red roommate of yours, Sarsuk?” asked the other gal with a wiggle and a wink. “Haven’t seen him in ages.”

“He dropped out, Mrs. Dothinak,” said Sarsuk as he shuffled away upright, carrying the tray with his forelegs.

“Well, that’s a real shame,” she called to his back.

Yeah, it was a shame. Butthrakyc had practically been a friend, the closest thing Sarsuk had managed in ages, certainly. He’d been a sociable guy who could find all the parties and the bars that wouldn’t be checking IDs. The yellow krakun had tagged along many times and even enjoyed himself on multiple occasions. Now that his roommate was gone, the dorm they’d shared was far quieter and lonelier.

He carried the tray to an empty table and ate by himself. He hated it here in the dining hall. Around him, students paired off in twos or even threes to joke and laugh. Some talked about the upcoming finals or plans for holidays. With hard surfaces everywhere, their voices echoed and boomed, as if they were laughing at him.

Sarsuk just ate. He didn’t want to talk about going home. Didn’t want to think about it. College had been Sarsuk’s first taste of freedom, and he didn’t want to give it up—not even for the short month before the next semester began.

Throughout Sarsuk’s youth, krakun society’s lowest-paid jobs had steadily eroded—the labor slowly replaced by teams of slaves. Now, truly average krakun—like Sarsuk—could no longer get average jobs. Those in the middle of the pack were getting the least desirable jobs. And everyone below them? They weren’t getting any jobs at all.

His mother had never been easy to live with, but ever since he’d left for school, her concerns about his employment opportunities had ratcheted up from an occasional nag to non-stop needling.

When he finished his meal, he dumped his tray in the washing bay. Slaves in plastic environment suits aimed high-pressure hoses at his plate and blasted the leftovers away as Sarsuk headed off to class. He moved slowly, a death march to his own execution. Everyone was getting their prep exams back today, and the sandy-yellow krakun wasn’t anticipating good news.

# # #

Sultuko grinned at her best friend. “You really want to go through with this bet? Because I know I aced that final prep,” she said. She showed some more teeth. “And I spent the whole week picking through the roster to find you the biggest loser in class. When I whip your tail, you are not gonna like who I picked.”

“Bring it!” sneered Gikunip. “You are so losing this bet. No way am I backing down.”

“Okay, fine,” laughed Sultuko, her fiery-orange scales flashing as she snatched her backpack from under the desk. She rummaged quickly through the bag then slid an item across the shared desk, concealing it with her palm. “You’ll need this.”

“What?” asked the pale green krakun. She moved her snout close, and with two talons, she gently peeled her friend’s claw up slightly so she could see the individually wrapped condom hidden underneath.

Gikunip’s eyes opened wide, and she let Sultuko’s claw lower back down over the foil wrapper.

The orange krakun leaned in so close that her lips nearly touched Gik’s tympanum horn, and Conquest filled her nose. Sultuko loved that scent so much. She’d lied to Gik, telling her that she’d received the cologne as a free gift with her purchase, but in truth, she’d bought it as a present because she knew it was the perfect scent for her best friend. “When you lose, I’m totally gonna tail you back to his dorm room, and you better bring this back … used and full.”

Sultuko closed her eyes, imagining Gik writhing against the sheets, moaning, digging her talons deep into the mattress. Gikunip put her claw on top of Sult’s, and the heat radiating from her palm almost made the green krakun swoon.

Gik pushed, sliding Sultuko’s claw and the illicit little item back to the other half of the desk. “Keep it,” she whispered back. “You’re the one who’s gonna need it because I know I aced this test.”

Sult grinned again. This was the greatest bet ever. The entire semester had been building to this apogee.

“What if we tie?” Gikunip asked.

That brought Sult up short, and she pulled her face away a few meters. “Uh. Then we’ve both lost, I guess.”

Gik’s eyes opened wider. “Then we both have to sleep with losers?” She covered a laugh. “Did you bring two?”

Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! Even the prospect of them both losing the dare wasn’t scaring her off. Sult’s eyes stared. “Uh… No…”

Gikunip frowned at the prospect of not being able to complete the bet. “So, I guess if that happens, the fair thing to do would be for neither—”

“No!” hissed Sultuko as their professor lumbered his way down the aisle toward the podium. The thought of canceling the bet infuriated her. If krakun society had one defining attribute, it was, “Identifying the loser is even more important than identifying the winner.”

Sultuko strengthened her resolve. “No, if we tied, we both lost. We still have to sleep with a loser.”

She started breathing harder. Could she turn this into a win? Could she get what she really wanted? “Um… Okay, new rule. If we tied… Um… We both have to sleep with…”—her throat constricted so tightly, and the auxiliary heart in her neck pounded out a tango—“with … um … each other. Then we’ll both be sleeping with a loser, and we won’t need more condoms,” she finally managed. She thought she might faint at how amazing the prospect could be.

Gikunip bit her lip a moment in thought before finally nodding. “Okay, that seems fair,” she whispered back. “It’d ruin the whole bet if we just called it a wash.”

“Settle down, class!” shouted the professor in his usual drone. “I don’t want to hear any more whispering.”

Sultuko sat back into her pillow and swept the condom into her bag. Her head was spinning so fast that she could barely make out the professor’s words. Please, please, please, she silently begged, please let us tie!

“I’ve finished grading your exams, and I must say that I’m very disappointed. This is simple basic stuff, folks. If you can’t hack the first course in fifth-dimensional waveguides, then maybe university is not for you. Honestly, anyone failing, anyone scoring below a seventy either wasn’t paying attention or should consider transferring to a trade school during the break.”

One-by-one, students slinked to the front as he called their names. Sult brought hers back with the widest grin plastered across her snout and set it on the middle of the desk, angled toward Gik. At the top, in bright red marker, the professor had written “ADEQUATE” in all majuscule glyphs. Beside that, her grade: 98—big and circled so it was impossible to miss. She didn’t even bother paging through the sheets to see which detail she had flubbed.

“Nice!” whispered Gikunip.

Then, they waited and waited and waited for the professor to get to Gik’s exam. She walked ever-so-slowly to the podium and ever-so-slowly back, her face a complete mask. When she finally took her seat once more, she laid her test atop of her friend’s.

At the top of the sheet, the professor had written “ACCEPTABLE”, and the number inside the circle? 99.

Sultuko stared, eyes wide, jaw hanging open, mind blanked. No! No! No! her brain screamed over and over for who-knows-how long. This can’t be happening! We didn’t tie! How could I have lost with a ninety-eight?

Someone was tapping her shoulder, so Sult looked up and numbly followed her best friend’s finger toward the back of the classroom where she was pointing out a sandy-yellow krakun who sat in abject horror as he paged through his exam. “How about that guy?” whispered Gik.

“Uh… Uh…” Sult finally managed, staring at the krakun in the back. What could she say? This dare had been her idea. “Okay.”

“Awesome,” Gik said. “I’ll wait for you outside his dorm, and then you can tell me every nasty detail of how it went.”

Her best friend wiggled in excitement. “This is gonna be great. And … Sult?”

Sultuko turned, their lips coming so close that they nearly touched, Gik’s warm breath blowing gently in her open mouth. “Yeah?” Sult whispered.

“Be sure to bring the condom back for me,” Gik said, pecking a kiss on Sult’s nose. “I want to see how full he can get it. That loser has to be the most pent-up in our entire grade!”

# # #

Sultuko waited until the classroom had mostly emptied out, but the yellow krakun still sat on his cushion as he paged back and forth through the exam sheets, disbelief painted across his face.

So, she pretended to trip as she passed and tossed her bag into his arms before catching herself on his desk. “Oh! I’m so sorry!” Sult gasped. “Geez, I’m clumsy. Did I hurt you?”

“Uh … what?” he said, clearly startled. He quickly flipped his exam over. She didn’t get a chance to see his exact score, but she noticed it was in the fifties. Even with it inverted, red marks bled through the last page. “No, I… I caught your bag.”

“Oh, thank you!” she said. She put a claw under his chin and slowly kissed the side of his head. His green eyes bulged open wider. “I guess I’m just so frazzled by that exam that I’m not paying attention. You’re such a good sport…” She let her words drift off, prompting him to share his name.

“Uh … Sarsuk,” he said finally.

“Sarsuk? Wow!” Sult said. “That’s such a bold name. It sounds like … like a one-two punch, y’know? Sar! Suk! Pow!” She made fists and pretended to jab at his chin with one and then the other.

“I… I… I never really thought of it that way. It always felt plain to me,” he said, his face brightening into the hint of a smile. “Um, and you’re…”

Sultuko swallowed. She hadn’t prepared an alias, and there was no way she was going to tell this dud her real name! “Nokevti,” she spurted. “My friends call me Noke.”

“Nokevti?” he repeated with wonder. “Isn’t… Isn’t there a blues singer…?”

“Yeah,” she sighed, lowering her eyes. It had been a stupid name to choose. Why had she picked it? Just because it was the first thing to pop into her mind? Stupid! She covered with a sultry whisper, “My dad was a huge fan of her music, and my mom never told him, ‘no’ … ever, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh. Heh.” Sarsuk managed a weak smile. His eyes glanced about in a panic, searching for something to share. “So, you didn’t do so great on the prep either, huh?”

She shook her head and frowned. “I passed,” she said, “but just barely—no safety margin at all. I’m gonna be up all-night cramming for the final. There’s no way I’m letting them wash me out with the first course!”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” sighed the yellow krakun. “My mom said not to come back without a degree. If I wash out… Well, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Yikes!” she said. How harsh! What an awful person. “That’s quite a motivator. I guess you’ll be up all night too, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Sarsuk said, lowering his eyes.

“Well, I don’t suppose you need a study partner?” asked Sultuko. “My roomy, you see, aced it, and she’ll be pissed if I keep the light on all night. She needs her beauty rest,” she added in a sing-song voice.

“Uh, that would be amazing!” he said. “I could really use the help.”

“We won’t keep your roommate up?” she asked. With a wink, “I can get kinda … wild when I’m sleep deprived!”

“Ha! No.” Sarsuk grinned wide. “Butthrakyc never studied. He stayed out every night drinking and washed out at midterms.”

Sultuko reached for her bag and slid her palm lightly over the back of his claw. “Lucky! I wish I’d had a private room since mid-terms. I bet you’ve been abusing the privilege, having gals over every night!”

The yellow krakun’s face lifted and fell as he dithered, trying to decide how to respond. At last, he replied, “Yes, well, I suppose I’m paying the price for that now, huh? I’m at risk of failing this final too.”

“Well,” she said, offering him her claw, “I suppose we should make the best of this night, so we don’t regret it tomorrow!”

# # #

Sarsuk sat at his desk, but he couldn’t keep his eyes on his book for more than a moment at a time. Sexy Nokevti was lying crossways on his bed, her text propped up against her bag. She was gorgeous! With her pretty face, shapely figure, and fiery orange scales, she was so far out of his league that the two of them weren’t even playing the same sport.

No gal ever looked his way, and sometimes he wondered if Mrs. Urreizaro and Mrs. Dothinak were out of his league.

But there she was, lying atop his bed—a study partner. How did this even happen? Maybe she could help him pass, and they could date. Or perhaps they would both drop out and he’d be there to catch her … somehow?

“So, Sarsuk, where would you say you’re the most stuck?” Noke asked.

“Ugh,” he groaned. He turned back to stare at the book in front of him as if it were his sworn nemesis. “I feel like I would get a lot more of this if I could just wrap my brain around the amphipentau—”

“The amphipentauxeparietal tesserachora?” she asked with surprise.

“Yes, that!” he said with some relief. Even getting the words out was tangling his tongue.

She stared at him and then flipped back through her textbook until she was nearly at the beginning. “It’s just a dimensional chamber—like a fourth dimensional test tube—where you’ve crafted the exact resonance, the exact echo you need to accomplish … well, whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. It’s just a building block.”

“Ugh,” he groaned, crushing his palm against his forehead. “You make it sound so simple.”

“Oh, it really is,” she laughed. Then she scooted over to make some room and patted the bed beside her. “C’mere. I’ll explain.”

“Uh… Uh…” he gasped. His hearts were racing and badly out of sync, leaving him lightheaded. He wasn’t certain if he should lay down next to her. That was a sure recipe for disaster, but then again, he wasn’t going to turn her down. “Okay.”

Very carefully, Sarsuk scooted in beside her, trying not to touch her, but there simply wasn’t room, and no matter how he positioned himself, his entire side pressed gently against hers. He suddenly felt very worried about what his breath might smell like. He tried to control his breathing, tried not to hyperventilate.

“So,” she said, crushing her palms together, “a dimensional chamber is just a four-dimensional space sandwiched between two five-dimensional objects.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. His eyes flicked between Nokevti and his textbook then back again, over and over so quickly it was making him dizzy. “This would be so much clearer if there was an illustration.”

Noke laughed and laid a piece of paper on top of her book. With a pen, she quickly drew an isometric view of a cube. “What’s this, Sarsuk?” she asked.

“It’s a … cube?” he said without any confidence, ready for ridicule.

“Nope. It’s nine lines drawn on a sheet of paper.”

He chuckled and rolled his eyes.

“But you’re right, it represents a cube,” she said. “This paper is a two-dimensional object, and I’ve drawn on it a representation of a three-dimensional object. I can imply one more dimension that my media actually permits. Make sense?”

“I suppose,” he said. “That seems logical.”

“So, you can’t hope to draw a fifth dimensional object on two-dimensional paper. It’s just…”—she wiggled her claws impotently—“too much.”

“I guess,” he sighed. “Sure would help though.”

“Now, suppose I had two physical cubes—three dimensional objects—and I sandwich this piece of paper—a two-dimensional space—between them, then that two-dimensional chamber would seem pretty insubstantial by comparison, right? If a waveform was bouncing between the cubes, then the sheet of paper would hardly matter.”

“Uh, sure.” Geez, she smelled nice. Her cologne was making it way too hard to concentrate. He was thinking about her far more than he was tomorrow’s exam.

Noke rolled on her side, so her belly was facing him. She touched his shoulder, giving him a little shove. “Roll over,” she whispered. “Lay on your side.”

Sarsuk’s stomach filled with wriggling insects. She was so close, so amazing. He could feel blood rushing to where he really wished it wouldn’t rush. Down between his hind legs, he could feel that tell-tale heating, a bulging waiting to expose… He had controlled himself this far, but it couldn’t last much longer at this rate. His embarrassment in front of Noke was as imminent as it was inevitable.

He tried thinking about sports as a distraction, but his brain filled with images of slaves wrestling, and that wasn’t helping at all! He didn’t know what to do, but she was being so insistent. He felt helpless to resist.

Once on his side, he stared only at her violet eyes. She looked in his eyes too, but only for a moment before she reached into her pack and pulled out a small golden object. He squinted, trying to make the unfamiliar item out, but only a moment later, she had peeled the golden foil away and cast it off the side of the bed. A pair of the dorm’s slaves scampered from the baseboard and across the thin carpet to retrieve the discarded wrapper and drag it to the recycler chute.

“For all intents and purposes, this is a two-dimensional object. It’s so thin, so insubstantial in comparison to a…” Her voice turned sultry as she unrolled the condom slightly, “solid … three-dimensional object…”

Nokevti reached down between them and placed the translucent item against his scales. Beyond his control, he had already started to peek out, and the sensation of her touch against those sensitive scales threw the process into high gear. She unrolled the pre-lubricated nitrile as he did until he was fully prepared and protected.

Sarsuk panted so hard that his breath whistled through his lips. Play it cool, you idiot! he scolded himself. Don’t let her know just how desperately you want this!

He swallowed hard. Just as suavely as he could manage, he whispered, “So, I suppose if we were to sandwich this two-dimensional object between two three-dimensional objects…”

She smiled.

He paused, waiting for her to pick up the lede he had dropped, but when he failed to take the initiative she had handed him, her smile decayed into a frown.

With a frustrated sigh, Nokevti took his claw in hers and positioned it so the soft pad below his index talon touched the scales between her own legs. “Do you feel that?” she asked quietly.

Did he? You bet he did! This was like a dream come true. Afraid to speak, afraid to trust his voice, he nodded.

“That is actually a four-dimensional object.” When he didn’t react beyond trembling, she added, “That fourth dimension is time, and by time, I mean this four-dimensional object isn’t going to exist in your bed much longer. Am I making myself clear?”

He nodded. Then nodded twice more. He held his expression neutral, nodding, and said nothing else, afraid she would change her mind.

She stared at the bobble-headed krakun for a moment longer, and her gaze nearly made him wither, but finally she said, “All right, then,” before rolling over onto all fours and lifting her tail.

Without a word, Sarsuk moved behind her, slowly running his palms over her rounded haunches before jabbing himself under her tail.

“Ow. Ow!” she hissed.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. He reached down between his legs and gripped firmly, then dragged himself up and down her scales like he was playing a xylophone, trying to relocate her four-dimensional object before it vanished from his existence.

Noke began to growl, but that only made him try harder, searching left and right as he went, drawing a thin line of lubricant all over her haunches like a whelp going to town on a coloring book.

“Just… Ugh!” she growled. She reached down between her own legs and snatched him firmly in her claw.

“Gah!” gasped Sarsuk, instinctively trying to pull away, but her grip was firm—more than firm, honestly—and he was going nowhere.

“It’s right … there,” she said at last, guiding him back to the spot he’d been searching for.

And then, he was doing it! He gasped, then tried to suck in a breath.

I’m having sex! his brain screamed at top volume. The prettiest gal in school is in my bed, and we’re having sex!

Of course, that’s when he noticed the small gathering of slaves beneath the cabinet. They were staring at the two krakun—not just staring, but pointing and laughing. Well, he assumed they were laughing. It’s not like he could hear the tiny squeaks from inside their plastic suits all the way across the room—certainly not over Noke grunting with his every thrust.

With one claw, he gestured at the slaves to leave. “Go away!” he mouthed slowly at them so they could easily read his lips. But instead of leaving, they waved back. Ugh! Those awful little mammals!

Sarsuk stared in shock. Without discussion or any apparent planning—like a spontaneous dance number in a musical—the six fell into three groups of two, miming sex acts back at him. At first, the acts were tame—one on top or behind another—but as Sarsuk struggled to enjoy himself, the six environment-suited slaves posed in ever-increasingly absurd positions with this slave standing on one leg or with that slave suspended in the air between two others. One, on all-fours, acted as a bed for another, her legs pointing straight up and tail straight down while she pretended to service the four remaining.

Oh, they were having a wonderful time taunting him, and he so wanted to pause what he was doing to crush them all.

Of course, he couldn’t. If he stopped now, Noke would never give him a chance to pick up where he’d left off. Besides, these weren’t his slaves, and the school had expressly forbidden students from disciplining any of them.

Someday, he thought, someday I won’t be just a poor student. I’ll have a cleaning crew of my own, and they’ll show me respect! They’ll treat me that way a krakun should be treated … or else!

Oh, he liked that thought! That was the krakun ideal—to be respected, feared even.

And then, sex was over. He’d done all he could do, and now he just clung to her, not wanting the experience to end. “Ow… Ow…” she hissed, trying to pry his talons away from her perfect hips.

Eventually, he slid from her body to squat at the edge of his own bed. She stood on her hind legs, facing him, but her expression wasn’t overjoyed. She seemed … disappointed.

Noke reached down between her legs and pulled out the condom he’d left behind.

“Oh, uh, sorry!” apologized Sarsuk once more. “I guess I left that… Um… Sorry. Just toss it on the floor, Noke. The cleaning crew will—”

“It’s fine!” she shouted, interrupting him. She grabbed her bag and in a quieter voice repeated, “It’s fine. I just need to clean up.”

“Oh yeah. Of course,” he said.

At the time, he hadn’t thought it strange that she took her bag with her to the bathroom. It seemed logical, in fact, that females might need something specific … for that sort of task and that her book bag was a logical place to keep such a … thing.

But fifteen minutes later, when she still hadn’t returned, he suspected the truth.

Noke was never going to speak to him again.

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VeCFjeLNc5WZbDso58kqArp71MHQfY992zXEZ2lQxo8/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?