Lilac bent back a branch to give herself enough room to pass. The woods had become thicker and it made her progress slow. She'd been on the move for over a week, trying to find a better place to roam. She was hungry, tired, and fed up with all these stupid branches in her way.
The landscape ahead began to descend into a gully. The rocks here were light and flecked with pyrite, making them wink at her as the sun hit them. The foliage in the valley was moist, heavy with moss and ferns. It was beautiful, but a rushing sound made Lilac quicken her pace. There was a waterfall nearby.
The sound grew louder as she came to the bottom of the gully. Stepping around a large fern, she saw the stream of water crashing down several metres of rock and into a deep pool below. As she came closer she saw something move among the rocks further down. The animal stood and moved back from the water. It's skin was a grey colour on its human-like upper half, and the fur on its legs black with a little grey around his fetlocks. His large nutsack hung heavy from his groin, holding two testicles the size of large lemons. The thick sheath resting above hid most of his penis.
Lilac had once seen a human shepherd boy with a flock of goats. They had wandered into the foreign realm through a portal or crack in the dimension, probably never to find their way back. She'd witnessed the human urinate and seen a male goat get horny, so she knew that the genitalia of male fauns was neither like one nor the other, but somewhat a mix of the two.
Sweeping his long black hair over his shoulder, the male faun finally noticed Lilac staring. Wide-eyed, he stood frozen, looking her up and down.
"Hey, you're like me," Lilac said in delight, taking a couple of steps closer.
The male made an inquisitive sound of amusement and closed the distance between them. He walked a circle around her, flaring his nostrils and inhaling. Probably not that surprising given Lilac was in heat again. All she could smell however, was his rancid odour.
Before she could turn to speak with him, he put an arm on her shoulder and belly and forced her to bend over. Lilac twisted to throw him off and pushed him to the ground.
"Don't give me that alpha shit!" she spat, glaring at him. "You can fuck me when I say you can."
Shocked, the male crawled over to the water's edge and sat with his legs tucked under himself. He hung his head, his eyes sad, looking pitifully dejected.
Lilac snorted. "That was very rude. At least introduce yourself first." She crossed her arms. "And stop pissing on yourself. We are quite far removed from goats. It's not alluring. You smell disgusting."
The male ignored all this, cocking his head to the side. He gestured to the pool. "Water. Drink." He pointed at her and back to the pool. "You drink."
Lilac carefully picked her way through the rocks and found a large flat one to kneel on. She kept checking over her shoulder between mouthfuls, worried the male would take the opportunity to mount her again. But he remained where he was, watching her and looking sad. He was clearly remorseful for upsetting her. It had probably been a long time since he'd seen another faun too. He might have been a bit hasty when smelling her, and presumed she wanted to fuck now talk later. She did want to fuck him. She could feel the slickness of her vulva just thinking about his cock. But saying hello was a simple courtesy.
Her thirst sated, Lilac rose and wandered over to him. "My name's Lilac."
He blinked at her and mumbled an incoherent mix of sounds and strange words.
"Can you not speak?"
"Speak," he repeated, making a couple more noises.
Why didn't he know her language? Lilac's mother had taught her when she was young, before she disappeared. Whether something had happened to her, or she'd been left due to being old enough to care for herself Lilac didn't know. Though seeing the goats in a heard, she thought it would make sense for fauns to be heard creatures too. The only one she'd seen since her mother was a grey female. But they'd met either side of a raging river, engorged by flood, and were unable to cross to speak.
Maybe this male had been abandoned at an even younger age, before he could learn many words. He could have been raised by another species, perhaps one that didn't talk. He did look rather wild. His hair was all mattered and filled with twigs. Lilac finger combed her chestnut locks to keep it neat and soft. She also kept herself clean, something this guy wasn't doing. He looked young. Maybe younger than her.
She pointed to herself. "Lilac."
"Lilac." He pointed at her. "You Lilac."
"Yes." She nodded her head. "What's your name?"
He smiled and tapped his chest. "Me Bramble."
"I am," she said. "Me Lilac?" She frowned and shook her head. "I am Lilac." She nodded.
"I am Bramble?"
She grinned. "Yes. That's good."
He returned a smile of his own.
"I'm twenty-five years old. How old are you?"
She thought that might be too much, but Bramble shuffled back and picked up a stone. On large rock, he drew lines in clutches of five. He couted as he went, but only up to two. In the end there were twenty-one lines.
"Twenty one." Taking a rock, Lilac pointed to herself and drew four more lines.
Then she went back and counted out loud to teach him the other numbers. He seemed overwhelmed, but happy to learn and rapt with her presence.
"You need a bath," she told him, screwing up her face and waving her hand in front of her nose. "You smell bad."
"Bath," he repeated.
"Yes."
She clasped at his hand as best she could with her awkward twin fingers, and beckoned to him to come into the water. Reluctantly, he followed, wading into the pool up to his waist. Lilac submerged herself, gliding through the water and coming up a couple of metres away. She playfully splashed Bramble and laughed. He looked offended, but splashed her in return when she did it again. Then he got that it was a game, and laughed as he sent a wave of water her way. He ventured deeper and even put his head under, though it didn't seem like he liked that much. Lilac swam to the other side of the pool, where there was more of a beach, and gabbed a handful of mud. Bramble came to see what she was doing.
"I use this to scrub at dirty patches." She held up her left leg, and rubbed mud into a grass stain. "I get dirty easily because I'm mostly white. But you should slap this on everywhere to get out that smell."
She dug up a handful and slathered it on his chest. Bramble snorted, but soon took to scrubbing himself clean as she demonstrated. While he worked, Lilac picked the leaves out of his hair, and tried to comb out the tangles. It was lovely and long, but would need much more work to get out the knots. Bramble made the occasional noise as they sat. His language seemed to consist of a mixture of real words, words of his own creation, and a range of grunts and noises, all of which probably had individual meanings. Lilac could only guess at what they were, but at least he was very pretty to look at with his narrow face and bright green eyes. He had a tiny tuff of hair on the tip of his chin that she found kind of cute. His curly horns were bigger than hers, and curled back and around. Hers were lighter and more of a corkscrew. Lilac hoped they could be friends. It would be nice to have some company.
Bramble had stopped washing, so Lilac left his hair for now. She climbed out of the pool and squeezed the water from her own hair. Bramble copied and stood staring at her with a dumb smile. Lilac leaned in and kissed his cheek.
"I'm hungry. Might you know where we could find food?" she made a sign like she was eating.
"Yes. Food. Eat." He nodded and motioned with his head for her to follow.
He led her away from the stream, and up the other side of the valley. Beyond the ridge, the undergrowth was less dense, eventually opening into an area of patchy grassland.
"Lovely." Lilac ran ahead to a spot of crisp green grass and snatched a handful. She stuffed it in her mouth and went for another.
Brambled grabbed some to chew on and made a noise at her as he passed.
