TDH Vol. 2 pt. 7

“So,” Zurie said, looking at Elanah, “tell me about yourself. Given that I am your sponsor, I wish to know more about those who I am sponsoring.”

Elanah blinked a few times and hugged me even closer to her chest. We were basically all still naked at that point, which was great. Seriously great. That meant I got to feel Elanah’s bare chest against my back. Did she have much to work with? No. She had nothing to work with. But even if there were only the tiniest of bumps there, her chest where her breasts were supposed to be was still nice and soft.

That softness was probably technically her breasts, but I wasn’t going to count them as tits unless they actually stuck out.

As for Elanah, she replied, “What… should I say? I—I don’t even know where to begin if you ask me something like that.”

“You may begin wherever you are comfortable starting from,” Zurie answered. “Whether that be your birth or your arrival in the city, either or anything else is an acceptable starting point.”

“I don’t think I’m interesting enough to talk about, really…”

“People hardly ever find their own lives interesting. Once you live as long as I have, you learn to appreciate just how unique everybody is.”

“How old are you? I know you’ve mentioned being old a couple of times before, but… you don’t look that much older than me.”

“I lost count of my exact age some hundred years ago, but I believe I am somewhere around the two hundred mark.”

She’s joking, right? She seriously has to be joking. There’s no way that she’s almost two hundred years old while looking that young. Even Elrafi show their age!

Elanah sounded like she was having a hard time believing it, too. “I… I would struggle to believe that if it wasn’t for how serious you sound. There’s… something about the way you talk that makes me believe it. Even the expressions you make and the way you carry yourself—it just all seems so… mature. Experienced? I know you might only look a few years older than me, but I’ve never seen anybody around my age talk or act like you do. And there’s that… look in your eyes.”

Zurie chuckled and sighed. “That look you mentioned is what I usually hear convinces people I am telling the truth.”

“I’m surprised you think people are still unique after that long. Don’t we blend together at some point? I would think you’ve heard the same stories and pasts over and over again.”

“I have. No matter what you tell me has happened in your life, I am sure that I will have already heard such a thing from somebody else. What makes you unique is the combination of it all. Your life is like a story. Stories are made of words that are in no way unique. Every word has been used countless times before. It is how you combine all those words together that makes your story unique. Does that mean it will stand out? Not particularly, but that still makes it unique even if everything making it up has been said or written countless times before.”

“I… guess that makes sense. Well, if you’re really interested, uh… I was born to Chosen parents. I don’t really remember much of what my childhood was like, but I remember that they loved me and I loved them. I don’t think I’ll ever forget my love for them, even if I’ve forgotten what their faces looked like. But they died when I was little. I was on my own for a while after that until somebody from the enclave found me and took me back to it.”

“And that is how you came to follow the hero who loved?”

Elanah nodded. “Everybody likes to only talk about how we love soul beasts like we would any other person, but we do a lot more than that. The hero who loved shared his love with everybody. He wanted to help the homeless, children in need, and even his enemies. There were so many kids like me at the enclave. Kids the world forgot about and nobody wanted to put in the effort to take care of. The elderly and sick, too. So… yeah, we believe in fate and we won’t hesitate to love a soul beast, but we want to take care of everybody to make sure that nobody is ever left needlessly suffering.”

“How admirable.”

It really is. Honestly, I never heard about any of that stuff. I just thought they wanted to fuck soul beasts. And normal beasts.

“I wish more people saw past the only ‘taboo’ thing we do,” Elanah continued, “but having sex with soul beasts sticks in people’s minds a lot better than being decent people who want to take care of everybody does.”

“Of course it does,” Zurie confirmed. “Why would they want to think of those other parts? Acknowledging that your group is so caring toward everybody will only remind them of their own failings. They would be forced to acknowledge that a group which does something they find immoral does so much more good for the world than they do. The average person does not want to consider the uncomfortable truth of those they disagree with being good people. How often do those in war consider the families and good deeds of those they meet on the battlefield? They don’t. If they do, they tend to hesitate more than those who do not and meet their end because of it.”

“I just… don’t get it. I don’t get how people can live without caring for each other. I feel like it’s so easy to see that if we take care of each other, we all benefit from it, but so many people don’t get it. The world would be such a nicer place if we all loved each other. They don’t even have to actually love each other, they just have to be nice and help each other.”

“Perhaps the world would be better for people on average, but it would be worse for those who want to advance beyond the rest. The time spent caring for one another is less time spent caring for oneself.”

“But that’s the thing! If you help others, others will help you, and you’ll get even more help than you would if you were on your own only helping yourself!”

“That sounds fine in theory, but it rarely works out that way. Even in rural villages where everybody looks out for one another, it is only in regard to their safety. Food, shelter, clothes, and so on. No matter how much you care for somebody else, the time invested into caring for them is never going to help you—for example—improve your skill in painting. It will never make you a better musician. It will not make your business thrive as they will not be traveling the world over to form new business deals. They will not be able to invent the ideas based off your mental schematics. Every moment spent on somebody else is a moment not spent on yourself. While improving the world for everybody is a goal most noble, it is not a goal which all share, especially those with limited lifespans. They would much rather make the most of the short time they have pursuing their passions and dreams. Even the system of this world ultimately rewards the individual over the collective. There is no level nor skills for a group of people. Only individuals have those.”

Elanah sighed and hugged me tightly again. “I know. It’s not like I never have selfish dreams. Even now… all I want is to live the rest of my life with Woofen. Sure, I would help somebody if I came across them and they needed it, but… I would rather spend all my time with Woofen. I’m no better than all those others who only want to improve their own situations.”

“I would say you are. Even if you admit to your own selfish goals, you are self-aware about them and still willing to help those who need it. That alone puts you a step above the average individual.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I do. Not to mention that I have no reason to lie. I am already sponsoring you and have already thoroughly enjoyed your body, so there is nothing for me to gain by lying.”

“I—I guess. Anyways… I told you about myself, and I don’t really think Woofen can tell us anything we don’t already know, so… what about yourself?”

So, Elanah isn’t just some pervert. Well, she is a pervert, but she also genuinely cares for people and wants to see what’s best for all of us even if she doesn’t like somebody. Then again… I might have to apply some nuance there since I’m pretty sure she didn’t care about the bastard who tried interrupting our training that one time. Or the guy who tried killing us in the dungeon. Actually, instead of applying nuance, I think she might just be a bit of a hypocrite. Anyways, I’m curious about our sponsor here, so I guess I’ll just… keep on being hugged and rubbed while they do all the work of talking. This is nice. Seriously nice.

I didn’t have to do a single thing. I didn’t have to talk, I didn’t have to participate at all, I didn’t have to share anything of my own past which would only include things like being left behind while everybody else around me got married and had kids, and so on. All I had to do was stay still and let Elanah hug me while she rubbed my belly. What more could a man ask for?

Well, there was plenty more that I could ask for, but there was no need to considering that I already got my fill of it earlier. Or rather, I emptied myself out earlier.

The girls were the ones getting filled.

“I was wondering when you would ask,” Zurie said to Elanah. “Is there anything you wish for me to start with?”

“What… what are you?” Elanah asked.

“A Chosen—or rather, I used to be one. There is no name for what exactly I am now, similar to how there is no name for what Woofen is. He is neither a Chosen nor a soul beast. I am neither a Chosen nor any other named species. If anything, I consider myself the corruption of one who was once a Chosen, but calling myself corrupted tends to carry quite the weight with it.”

Yeah, calling yourself corrupted makes you sound like a Corrupted. Probably a good idea to avoid calling yourself that.

“I learned to stop caring about such a label long ago.”

Elanah nodded while moving one of her hands up to my paws to play with them, stretching my legs out and pressing her fingers up against the padding of my paws. “I don’t really know what else to ask about. Is there… anything else you’re going to want from us once we’re free from the dungeon?”

“Here I thought I would wait until it was time to part ways for the day before telling you that, but I suppose it would not hurt to let you know now.”

Wait, I wanted to learn more about her! You should have asked something else about her past! Where’d she grow up? What was her life like? Does she come from a place where there are even more women with bodies like hers?!

There were so many questions I had that I wanted to ask Zurie, but Elanah couldn’t think of any of them, apparently. Instead, she went for probably the most boring thing that she could ask which I didn’t even care to think about because there wasn’t even a guarantee we’d ever get out of the dungeon.

Well, technically, we were already out of it. But even if we were out of it, we weren’t free from it and were still criminals who had to wear collars that could kill us if we ever tried to misbehave or run away.

“There is only one thing I will ask for upon your successful survival of the dungeon,” Zurie said.

Elanah didn’t say anything, instead just slowing down her playing with my paws as she waited for Zurie’s answer. I could feel that she was holding her breath.

“I want the two of you to live a happy life with one another. Live a simple life wherever you wish where all that matters is making one another happy. Spend the rest of your days proving your love to each other, raise children, and be happy.”

Elanah let out that breath she was holding. “Is that it? You don’t… you don’t want us to do anything else for you? Sponsors are supposed to get something out of who they’re sponsoring. That’s the whole point. It feels like… you’re not getting anything out of us.”

“Do not get me wrong, I am not so selfless a woman that I would not expect anything from you. In fact, what I requested is already something I consider incredibly selfish. I want the two of you to live long, happy lives together. Knowing you two are together somewhere out in the world will be enough for me to live vicariously through you.” Zurie paused for a moment, rolling onto her back to look up at the ceiling. “Such a happiness is beyond what I can take for myself and will likely remain that way.”

“But… why?”

“Why what?”

“What do you mean it’s beyond you?”

“It would never be allowed. Not only would the one who made me this way disallow it, but I would never allow myself such joy unless I could first deal with him, and I doubt that to even be a possible task. The only beings in this world capable of helping me have no interest in it, so I doubt that—”

“We’ll help!”

What?

Zurie turned her head onto its side to look at us again, the surprise clear in her eyes. Seeing her look so surprised was new for us.

“We’ll help you!” Elanah repeated. “If we get out of here with your help… we owe our lives to you. You’d be part of the reason for why we’re able to live together for the rest of our lives. If somebody helps me spend the rest of my life with my fated, I want to help them however I can!”

Zurie smiled, but I wouldn’t say that she looked happy. Instead, there was a sort of sadness behind her smile. The look on her face told me that she really had zero faith in us being able to do anything for her. “We will see. And thank you.”

Elanah nodded and stretched out both of my front legs at once toward Zurie. “We’ll help you however we can!”

I have no idea what’s going on or if we’ll actually be able to help even a tiny bit, but seeing that expression makes me want to try.

How was I going to say no to trying to help out the beautiful woman who let me do things to her thighs while sponsoring me and Elanah to help us earn our freedom?

Also, it sounded like if we could help her, I might get more access to her thighs. I didn’t want to say goodbye to them once we were free.

Unfortunately, I had a feeling that what she needed help with was going to be something either extremely difficult or incredibly dangerous seeing as how she wasn’t even considering it being a possible option assuming we could make it out of the dungeon. Surviving until the end of the dungeon would mean that both of us were powerful and skilled fighters. To still not even be considered despite that… yeah. I was worried about what Zurie had to deal with. Seriously worried.