17- Escadaram.

"You'll stay with me?" Tau asked as he felt her move beneath his hands.

"Yeah, I'll stay with you. Besides, you may even enjoy it more," Quayleigh replied as she stepped back and made her way towards the patio door, closing the curtain. "Lay down on your side, facing this way, and leave enough room for me behind you. You're probably going to want to take your boxers off for this too; hence the towel."

As she moved around to the nightstand, Tau stripped off his boxers and covered himself with the aforementioned towel.

"This might feel a bit cold at first," she warned as she dipped the brush into the water, tapping it against the edge of the glass, before using it to dampen a small area on the back of his shoulder. Picking up the bottle of gel, she passed it to him. "Put a small bit of that into your palm and spread it around so it doesn't drip."

"What's this for?" he asked as he opened the bottle.

"Lubricant. You can thank me for that later," she replied as she proceeded to pick up the vial of black liquid. "Now hold still and keep your eyes open."

"Will this be cold to?"

"Actually, it should feel warm on contact," she replied as she dipped the brush into the vial, allowing the bristles to soak up the concoction. Once he'd finished his own task, he handed the bottle of lubricant back to her, before spreading out what he had, around his palm. "Ready?"

"I think so."

"Good. Now, count to ten, nice and slow for me."

"One…" Tau began to count as she started to paint the lines of the rune onto his shoulder.

To him it felt warm as she had described, and by the time he reached seven, the sensation was radiating over his shoulder and down his arm and back. At eight, it had spread across his chest, and up his neck. At nine, Quayleigh leaned over his shoulder and held the vial beneath his nose. Just when he was going to say 10, she interrupted, "Breath deep, and then close your eyes."

He took a deep breath in, his eyes drifting shut with little effort on his behalf. Closing the vial, she placed it on the nightstand and dropped the brush into the glass. "And now the fun begins," she whispered as she leaned over, and exhaled, "Es-ca-da-ram", before kissing the rune she had painted onto his shoulder, his entire body growing warm to the touch. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Then open your eyes."

Slowly opening his eyes, he looked around and saw only black, but from her perspective his eyes were still shut tight as she expected them to be.

"What's going on? I can't see anything."

"It's ok, don't panic. You're inside an escadaram. It's a safe space, created inside your own mind," she replied as she removed her shirt. "I'm going to lay down behind you, and it may feel strange. You may not actually feel anything at all," she explained as she stretched out on the bed behind him.

"Ok," he replied, hearing her movements, and yet, as she had warned, he felt nothing.

"Now, I want you to hold your hands out in front of you and tell me what you see."

Lifting his hands, he gasped, and his body quaked, "this can't be…"

"What is it, Tau?"

"I'm me. I'm me! These are my hands. My feet. My tail! Oh, how I have missed my tail!"

Quayleigh giggled as she leaned down against him, "My Tau, you really are quite adorable."

Turning around to the sound of her in his ear, Tauluthet saw Quayleigh standing behind him in the blackness of his mind. "How? How are you here?"

"I'm not. Only my voice is real. We are actively speaking both inside and outside the Escadaram though. As for my appearance, that's all on you. Your mind is creating your perception of me. In here, you can see me however you want. I would suggest…"

"You're here! Nothing else! I want nothing else!" Tauluthet interrupted with excitement as he grabbed her, grappling her to his chest. "You're here. You can see the real me and you're not afraid," he whispered as he stroked her back and nuzzled his face to her cheek. "This is all I ever wanted. Just to hold you like this."

Quays watched as Tau curled himself into a ball and rubbed his face against the pillow. "Oh, my darling Tauluthet, what if I told you, in here, you could have so much more than this?"

"I shouldn't want for more. I have no right to be with you; to want you as I do. Truly, I could live the rest of eternity, satisfied with this."

"While satisfaction is what I'm aiming for, I think you mean content. You would be content with this, but that isn't going to cover the cost of the spell. That being said, let's see what you can imagine," she replied as she ran her fingers up through the hair on the back of his head.

Letting out a deep guttural moan, Tau stretched out and craned back his head, his toes cracking as he curled them to the sensation, "more, more… ah… don't stop. Behind my ear. Quayleigh, this feels amazing!"

With a soft giggle, she began to massage her fingers into his scalp, slowing the motion of her hand over a short time, allowing him to relax, until it sounded as if he was purring. She was somewhat surprised that something as simple as this could illicit such a strong reaction, but what did she truly know about the anatomy of a sen'awan'qachi. In a way, this was as much of an exploration for her as it was for him.

"Tau, I want you to think back, to the last time you saw me laying on this bed, bathed in the green."

"Are you…" Tauluthet paused as he scooped Quayleigh up in his arms, and then sat on the floor crossing his legs, setting her into his lap. "Are you going to be alright with this?"

"Yes, Tau. I want you to see me as I really am. Without the clothing to cover my scars. You've seen me that way in the green, and now I want you to see me that way here. Take a breath and let everything around you, drown in the green light. And tell me what you see."

"You. You're lying in my arms. Your hair's fallen between the bones of my arm and legs, cascading all the way to the floor. It looks as if we're inside your room, but my lap has become your bed."

"Set your hand against my face. Can you feel it's contours?"

"Yes. You're soft, and warm. Your features are so delicate in this light that they vanish beneath my shadows," he replied as she slid her hand down Tau's arm, guiding it below the edge of the towel.

"Press in, Tauluthet, grab the green and stripe it away. Remove it as if it were a bedsheet, and I'm beneath, waiting for you," she said as Tau grabbed the edge of the towel shifting it away.

Tauluthet's motions inside the Escadaram were far more exaggerated as he wrapped the ends of his fingers against her forehead causing it to lift up. Taking a firm hold, he aggressively ripped it back, her green image peeling away, now stretched across the face of an arbitrary piece of fabric. Throwing it aside, he once more found himself surrounded in black, only this time, stretched out in his lap was Quayleigh, wearing nothing but a pair of blue panties with small green hearts printed on them. "I don't know why I like these ones," he remarked with a bit of a chuckle, "You truly are so beautiful. Is this really ok for me to be here, like this, with you?"

"Yes Tau, it is. I'm good with this, but if it's too uncomfortable for you, I can leave whenever you wish."

"No! No, please, don't leave me. Never leave me," he exclaimed as he rested his arm against the center of her chest, his fingers dancing across her cheek as he gazed down at her, all four of his eyes blinking in unison. "Please, I've never felt my heart beat before," he said as his hand shifting to his chest; Quays taking note of the way his fingers twitched, "and yet it does, in your presence."

"Good. I want you to feel it. I want you to stretch out your hand and feel the rise and fall of your chest as you breath. Sense that steady rhythm of your heart, and the way it pounds with excitement," She said as she sat up behind him and moved the towel into a better position. "Tell me Tau, when you look at me, lying there, do you start to feel a warmth, here in your core?" she asked as she placed her hand upon his lower abdomen, pressing against it.

"I do, what is this?"

"That warmth is your desire. Can you feel it radiating out from your core? Flowing through you? Heating the area of your lap where I am laying?"

"Yes."

"Can you let me stand up?" she asked as she set her hand over his.

"Oh, yes, here," Tauluthet leaned back and offered Quayleigh his hand, which she took, standing up before him.

"Thank you, my darling Tau. Now, take a hold of that heat. It is a part of who you are. It belongs to you," she said as she lowered his hand, his body tensing as he took a firm grip of his erection. "Feel that heat against your palm, and let your hand explore it. Get familiar with its size, weight, and shape. You control everything about how you experience it. Let your body discover what it likes, while I stay here in the Escadaram with you."

"I don't understand what's happening. Why does my hand in here feel hot to the touch?"

"It's just the way the spell works," Quays replied as she laid back down behind him, "as you focus on the sensations, I should start moving around in here on my own. Like right now, I should be leaning against your back."

He sharply exhaled, his head turning abruptly as Quayleigh leaned against him, "ah, this is so, …strange. I can feel the warmth of your skin against my bones."

Reaching forward, Quays slid her hand out along Tau's jaw, before cupping her fingers to the underside of his chin and pressing firmly down. Drawing her hand back, she ran it down the front of his neck, his head craning back once more, his jaw hanging open as he began to pant.

"That's really you, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. The more closely you mirror your position in here to the one out there, the more real this is going to feel now," she explained as she rubbed at his cheek.

"Ah…" Tauluthet gasped as he collapsed down on the floor, Quayleigh falling with him.

"Tell me what you want Tau."

"Can you…" he swallowed harshly as his toes curled and his body tensed shifting inward to the thought alone, "like earlier…"

"You want me to run my fingers through your hair?"

"Yes," he practically squeaked his response as if it was the single most embarrassing thing he could have asked for.

"For you, anything," she whispered, her cheeks bright red as she attempted to hold back a giggle, finding his request beyond adorable.

Sliding further up on the bed, she reached over him and set her finger on the tip of his nose dragging it back towards his hairline. His head tilting back until she dropped her fingers against his scalp running them over and down his head, as he moaned in sheer pleasure.

Quayleigh's finger felt like silk against the bone of his face, but as she reached the fur covered patch of the flesh that covered the top of his head, and most of the right side of his face, the front edge held on by leather straps wrapped around his upper jaw, it became near unbearable ecstasy. He had never felt anything like it before, the weight of her hands combing through his woolen fur, scratching at his scalp, was heavenly. His large ear, like that of a mule, tattered along the outer edge, twitched to the sensation of her hand caressing it, and he cried out in delight, his jaw hanging open, and the full length of his split, purple tongue, draped across the floor, as he began to froth at the mouth.

"When I would lie on my bed," he could feel the warmth of her breath pass by his ear as she whispered to him, "I used to image the way it would feel to have your fingers of bone move over my skin, and up through my hair. To feel the surface of your face beneath my hands. The weight of your body pressed down against mine. I would see myself reflected in your eyes as you watched me, as I pleasured myself in anticipation. And I wondered, how much you would love me."

Tauluthet moaned, his entirely body radiating heat as he clawed at the floor and closed his eyes, finding it nearly incapable of separating what he was experiencing as himself, and what was happening in reality. Even Quays, for as careful as she had been to control his reactions, became worried when he reached up with his left hand as if he was trying to clutch his own face. Yet in his mind he was chewing on his own wrist, to stop himself from howling, his other hand having grasped hold of his intact pouch, as a pressure, that was completely foreign to the thing he was, began to build with the heat growing in his palm, all while she continued to speak.

"My beloved Tauluthet, you've watched me in a sea of green, not knowing that I was dreaming of you. Longing for you in those moments. Praying that you would find your way to me. Hoping that when you arrived, you would want… you would want me," she struggled to speak as she wrapped her arm over his shoulder and pressed herself around him, his entirely body tensing and contorting the sound of her voice, "the way I wanted you." The last of her words, "Tauluthet, I love you", drowned out by the vocal, guttural, expression of the elation that escaped from him.