An Unexpected Guest

The rain across Averland had been torrential for the past three days and last night the river that bordered Johann’s farm had overflown. The deluge had finally stopped in the morning and now that the waters had receded he intended to survey the damage to his fields. Tired, cold and covered in mud, he reached the riverbank and cursed under his breath. The small bridge which in normal times gave him access to the main road had been smashed to splinters and carried away.

As he reflected upon his misfortune, his attention was caught by a brown shape lying on the grass close to the water’s edge. “A drowned dog?” he thought. The current had certainly been strong enough to catch and carry away an unlucky animal. In any case, it would be best to bury the carcass before it started to decompose or attract scavengers. However, as he got closer, the man saw that something was wrong. The thing was too large to be a dog and looked nothing like a bear or a wolf. It had a pointed snout from which two yellowish sharp incisors protruded and a long naked tail between its rear legs. Despite its bestial appearance, it was also disturbingly humanoid in shape and was clothed in tattered red and green rags. The strange creature was lying on its flank, its eyes closed, apparently dead.

Johann gasped and cursed again, loudly this time. Now he recognized this thing! Two years ago he had been drafted into the local militia after several isolated farms had been sacked by rat-shaped beastmen that some of his fellow conscripts had called ‘the Skaven’. His company had been dispatched to reinforce a village under threat but by the time the militiamen got there the fighting was already over. The rat-men had clearly not expected to be met with resistance and had scattered and fled as soon as the villagers had armed themselves and counterattacked. Johann and his comrades were tasked with gathering the dead bodies so that they could be incinerated outside the village. He remembered coming across a pile of corpses in a dead end between two buildings. A group of panicked rats had been cornered in that spot and slaughtered by the vengeful villagers. Despite the monstrous appearance of the rat-men, Johann had felt a measure of pity for them. Those ones had been abandoned to their grisly fate to cover the retreat of their fleeing comrades. Before his company was disbanded, an imperial officer had spoken to the assembled men and explained that those so-called ‘Skaven’ were nothing more than a tribe of oddly-shaped mutants and that those who had witnessed the fighting or its aftermath would do well to keep silent about the whole incident.

There was no doubt possible, the drowned thing at his feet was a Skaven. A male one as well, judging by the shape of his sodden loincloth. Unless this was an isolated individual who had gotten lost, his presence meant that there was a nest of these creatures further upstream, undetected but bound to launch another attack one day. Maybe this time his own farm would not be spared.

The man’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted. Did the body just move? Yes, the long tail was curling up and the creature had opened its eyes. Johann jerked backwards, ready to defend himself but the Skaven was turning his back to him. With great difficulty, he propped itself up on his hands, turned his head to the side, coughed several times and threw up water. Exhausted, the rat-man collapsed and laid on his back, his chest slowly heaving up and down.

Johann quickly looked around him and grabbed a suitably heavy stone. He approached the beast and raised his makeshift weapon, intending to finish him off. But as he was about to strike he hesitated. He had seen how dangerous and destructive these creatures could be. Moreover, he was aware that the witch hunters took a very peculiar interest in people who had interacted with the children of chaos and he did not want to give them an excuse to snatch him for interrogation. On the other hand, he was not sure he could bring himself to smash the head of another living being, especially one that was lying defenceless at his feet and had done him no harm. He looked the Skaven over and felt sorry for the unfortunate thing. The soaked fur made him look skinny and miserable and he was obviously freezing. He tried to steel himself. This would be an act of mercy, better for him to die from a quick blow to the head than slowly from exposure or starvation. Besides, what other option did he have? After all, it would be utter madness to try to…

“Sigmar curse my soft heart”, grumbled Johann. After making sure no one was around, he lifted the unconscious rat-man from the ground and, cradling him gently in his strong arms, made his way back to his farmstead.

The Skaven was breathing laboriously. Johann had covered him with a thick blanket and installed him as comfortably as possible on a mattress in a small room of his house. Despite this, the rat-man was shivering. “He must have gotten a fever,” the man thought, “not surprising after spending so long in the cold air with wet clothes”. Soon he had removed the Skaven’s rags and rubbed him vigorously with a towel before laying him on the makeshift bed. The task had given him the opportunity to inspect the weird rodent-like being up close. His frame was lithe and slender yet the man could feel lean muscles underneath the shaggy fur of his thighs as he massaged them. Johann’s curiosity had also made him take a long look at the strange equipment between the legs of the Skaven. The testicles were larger than those of a human, about the size of apples. The creature had a long, thin penile sheath of furry skin, not unlike that of a dog. The sight of these unfamiliar, bestial genitals had filled the man with an odd mixture of disgust and fascination.

He briefly considered throwing the Skaven’s disgusting garments away but changed his mind. None of his own clothes would fit the strangely shaped body. He would wash the rags as best he could and give them back to him once he woke up. “That is, if he wakes up at all,” Johann mused. The Skaven was sick but fetching a healer was out of the question. He would have to keep the little rat dry and warm and hope he would last through the night. If he didn’t, he would at least give him a decent grave. If he did survive, well, Johann was actually not sure what he would do. With the roads turned into a quagmire from the rain and the bridge gone he wasn’t overly worried about an impromptu visitor showing up and finding a giant man-sized rodent in his home. What troubled him was his own safety. He had not seen any live Skaven during his service as a militiaman but he had seen how entire hamlets had been burned to the ground and their inhabitants slain or carried away into captivity by the foul monsters. For now this one was in no shape to threaten anyone. Once he had regained consciousness Johann would try to talk to him. With some luck he would let himself be nursed back to health until he was strong enough to go back to wherever he came from. If he was hostile, the man would truly have no choice this time. In the meantime, he would lock the Skaven inside the room each night for both their safety. He also decided to carry a knife with him at all times and keep it within arm’s reach when he slept. Just in case.

Johann kept watch over his guest until late in the night. The rat was wheezing and his nose felt very hot to the touch. The man tried to pour some water down his throat and pressed a wet cloth to his forehead to cool him down. After past midnight he seemed to fall asleep and Johann retired to his own bed. He felt pessimistic but the next morning he found that the Skaven was still alive and had opened his eyes. He cautiously attempted to speak to him but the rat-man was delirious with fever and remained unresponsive. However, he got a little bit better through the day and Johann was able to make him swallow some broth. The fever lasted for another day during which the Skaven drifted in and out of consciousness. He was still too ill to realize where he was.

Late on the evening of the third day, Johann decided to check on his patient one more time before going to bed. He found him tossing and turning on his mattress, his blanket pushed aside. Taking another wet cloth with him, he kneeled next to the Skaven and touched his little nose with his fingers. The temperature had decreased considerably but he was still having trouble sleeping. As his eyes wandered over the naked, furry body lying in front of him he noticed with surprise that his sheath was swollen and that a pink, semi-erect member was protruding from its opening. “Well,” laughed the man, “no wonder the poor bastard can’t get any rest”.

An idea flashed through his mind: perhaps he should help the poor thing sleep more peacefully? His mind reeled from the depravity of his thought. Did he seriously consider giving a handjob to what was little more than a diseased animal? He was already lucky not to have fallen sick himself from taking the filthy thing in his home. He paused for a moment, remembering the odd feelings he had experienced when he had undressed the Skaven after taking him home.

The Skaven moaned and thrashed in his sleep, still tormented by his erection.  Johann gave it another look and bit his lower lip. “That doesn’t mean anything,” he thought, “I could just give him some quick relief and nothing more. If that helps him find rest then he will recover faster and be out of my life earlier.” The young man gently caressed the Skaven’s head to keep him still and reached out for his swollen sheath with a trembling hand. The flesh was hot to the touch and he could feel a hard, long, rod-like penis inside. Cautiously, he slid back the loose skin and freed its contents. A strong, ripe smell of unwashed maleness immediately hit his nostrils and made him recoil in disgust. He saw that the uncovered member and the folds of the retracted sheath were coated with a generous layer of smegma. The rat-men were clearly not too concerned about personal hygiene. He briefly considered retreating back to his own room but decided to persevere. “Now that I’ve started, I might as well finish the job,” he sighed. Besides, after the initial aggressive whiff, the wild scent had grown less overwhelming and was actually quite bearable. He picked up the wet cloth which he had left at his side and wiped the worst of the grime from the erect organ and the sheath. Satisfied with his job, he also saw that the Skaven had not been indifferent to his touch. The thin member was now red and turgid. Encouraged, he delicately grasped it between his fingers and started stroking it up and down, immediately causing little spurts of watery precum to shoot from the tip.

“Eeeeek”, squealed the rat-man, who was now squirming half-awake on the mattress. Pleased with the reaction he was eliciting, Johann hastened his strokes, feeling the warm cock throbbing in his hand. Soon, he picked up a new, pungent smell. He lowered his head to try to locate the source of the odour. It seemed to come from under the tail. “Maybe some sort of musk, like an animal?” he wondered. The scent was very acrid, unlike anything he had smelled before, but somehow it was making his heart beat faster and blood rush to his head. It took him a few moments to realize that he now had a hard-on as well. “I feel weird,” he told himself, “I should get this over with and go to sleep”. Moved by a sudden impulse, he slipped his other hand under the Skaven’s heavy testicles and reached for his hole. He found it sleek with an oily substance, probably the musk that he had squirted after Johann had started touching him. He rubbed his fingers against the entrance, the natural revulsion he would normally have felt completely overcome by the intoxicating smell. The Skaven emitted a groan and gripped his mattress with his clawed hands. Emboldened, the young man slid two of his now slippery fingers inside the warm opening, moving them around and exploring the cavity.

This was enough to send the rat-man over the edge. His moans turned into a series of high-pitched squeals, the claws of his feet curled and his tail started wriggling. The cock in Johann’s hand pulsated and shot several long ropes of semen which landed on the rat’s tummy, chest and snout. Simultaneously, he felt the anal muscles contract convulsively around his fingers and sensed more of the musky liquid squirting from the hole and smearing his hand. After a few seconds, the Skaven breathed deeply and calmed down. Stunned, Johann contemplated the messy spectacle under his eyes. He absent-mindedly held his cum-dripping hand under the rat-man’s muzzle. A long tongue darted from the Skaven’s mouth and instinctively lapped up the seed. Johann used his hand to wipe most of the semen that coated the brown fur and let the Skaven lick his fingers clean again. He then used the cloth to finish off the remaining stains and stepped back. His unlikely partner was now sleeping soundly, his member having retracted back into its sheath. He pulled the blanket back on the furry body and left the room, feeling dazed. As he undressed in his bedroom, he finally noticed that his other hand was still covered in anal musk and brought it to his nose. The smell immediately reignited his erection. It only took him a few vigorous strokes from his oily fingers to reach climax and shoot his own load on the floor.

Johann woke up the next morning with his mind still cloudy. Any doubts he could have had regarding the reality of last night’s events were quickly dissipated when he saw his hands, crusty and coated in dried out semen, saliva and musk. He rushed to his wash basin and scrubbed himself clean. He found, however, that the fingers on which the Skaven had squirted his musk retained the strong scent. “It will probably fade with time,” he muttered as he put on his clothes, “Good thing I am not seeing anyone any time soon”.

As he passed in front of the room in which he had locked up his strange guest, he heard a faint noise inside. Cautiously, he opened the door and saw that the rat-man was now awake and sitting on his mattress, fully conscious but visibly highly confused by his surroundings. Upon seeing Johann the Skaven squealed in fright and tried to get up, only to fall back on his buttocks. Unable to move, he bared his teeth and hissed at the man who felt more worried than threatened. The rat was still too weak to be dangerous but if he did not calm down soon he would exhaust himself and possibly die.

“Easy now, I am not going to hurt you,” he said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. “Don’t you recognize me little fellow? I have been pampering you for a few days now.”

He carefully approached the Skaven with his empty hands raised, hoping to show that he was not hostile. His heart sank as he saw the rat desperately try to drag himself away from him. Suddenly, the Skaven’s nose started twitching and he turned his head towards Johann’s hand. The expression of anger and fear departed from his face and he stopped struggling. The young man was left momentarily stunned by this unexpected turn of events before he remembered that his hands were still reeking of the musk-scent.

“Do you recognize me now?” he asked. Blushing, he quickly mumbled: “Listen, I don’t know how much you remember from last night but I swear I was only trying to help you.”

Speaking slowly and feeling a bit foolish, Johann tried to explain the events of the past few days and reassure him of his peaceful intentions. The Skaven simply looked at him with beady red eyes and remained silent, only occasionally tilting his head sideways. The man was not sure to what extent the communication was successful. He asked several questions to his protégé, trying to ascertain how he felt and discover what his name was. But his queries were met with mute stares. He decided to try another approach.

“By Sigmar, where are my manners? You must be starving after three days. How about some fresh eggs and meat?”

The little trick worked. The Skaven immediately livened up and chittered excitedly. Johann guessed that he could understand some Reikspiel but was either unable or unwilling to speak it. Hopefully he had gotten the gist of what the man had told him and understood that he meant him no harm.

The rat-man proved to be a voracious eater and wolfed down more food in one meal than Johann would have eaten in a day. He was quite picky too and disdained the bread and vegetables that were laid in front of him, preferring instead to focus on the sausages, bacon, eggs and cheese. Despite the damage that was being inflicted upon his larder, Johann was more amused than annoyed. “Well,” he thought, “these critters probably don’t eat to their heart’s content every day.” His breakfast finished, the Skaven quickly fell asleep again. The man checked on him several times during the afternoon and evening. The Skaven was now obviously looking forward to the visits and the food that his host was bringing him. He was also far more talkative than before and answered Johann’s questions in a series of rapid squeaks and yaps that the man assumed were his language. He couldn’t make any sense of it but a word grabbed his attention after he heard it several times.

“Skitch, eh? That will have to do for a name.”

The next day Skitch was able to stand on his feet, wobbling at first but soon with more confidence. Johann felt pleased but a voice at the back of his mind was urging him to get rid of his strange and potentially dangerous guest as soon as possible. He was confident he could overpower the Skaven if he tried to attack him but his sharp teeth looked like they could inflict very nasty bites. Furthermore, he had his own farm to take care of. “Tomorrow morning, if he is able to walk, I will give him his clothes back with a bag of provisions and tell him that it is time for him to go”. With his mind made up, he went to bed. It took him a while to find sleep, though. His little companion had started to grow on him and he felt his heart pinch at the thought of kicking him out.

Johann woke up with a start. It was the middle of night and his room was filled with darkness, the only source of light from the moon shining through the window. He tried to go back to sleep but something was nagging at him and he couldn’t shake off a feeling of unease. Somewhere in the house a gust of wind made a door hinge squeak. He shrugged. He had left a door open, that was all.

A sudden terror gripped his heart. Which door? Had he left the Skaven’s room unlocked? Had the beast noticed it and escaped? He felt cold sweat emerge on his forehead and reached out for the knife on his nightstand. It was gone. Paralysed with fear, he strained to listen for any suspicious sounds. Claws raked on the wooden floorboards of his bedroom and a form jumped on his bed.

Johann let out a strangled cry. The glowing red eyes and the two long incisors that shone in the moonlight left little doubt as to the identity of the thing that was prowling over him. “Skitch?” he croaked. The Skaven grinned and pulled his maw closer to the man’s face.
“Serves me right for being such a naive fool,” Johann thought panickedly. Before he could fight back, however, he felt a long, raspy tongue lick him across the face.

“Man-thing nice-nice!”

“Huh?”

Dumbfounded, Johann remained immobile as Skitch kissed his nose, lips and cheeks with quick licks. The Skaven pulled the blanket aside, revealing Johann’s naked body. He then resumed his licking and sniffing, this time trailing his snout from the man’s neck down towards his stomach. Johann saw him make a small detour by the armpits, where he drunk in his scent with deep whiffs. The Skaven finally stopped and hovered for a few moments above Johann’s bare groin before burying his nose into his genitals and inhaling the male aroma. The long whiskers tickled him but the man did not dare move. By now he had realized that the rat was not hostile but the sight of these strong jaws filled with pointy teeth so close to such a sensitive area was not reassuring. It was only after Skitch started working his tongue on his penis that he realized he was becoming aroused.

“What is he doing? Is he returning the favour for last night?” As if answering his question, the Skaven gripped the man’s hardening cock with his hand and started stroking it while he licked and kissed the tip of his glans. Johann moaned. His fear had vanished, replaced by a pleasant stirring in his loins. He spread his legs to give his partner easier access to his intimate parts.
After much stroking and licking, Skitch raised his head from the slick cock and grinned at the man. He quickly moved his body forward and crouched over the man’s groin. Without warning, he raised his tail, grasped Johann’s throbbing shaft and guided it as he lowered himself onto it.

“Oooh” Johann moaned. The Skaven was incredibly tight and he was worried he would hurt him. But the rat ground his teeth and pressed himself to the hilt. After a short pause, he enthusiastically started raising and lowering himself on the cock that was skewering him. Both males were now panting and Johann felt an oily liquid oozing from the hole he was fucking. “That damned musk again,” he absent-mindedly thought as the smell drifted to his nostrils and made his lust unbearable. He grabbed Skitch by the waist and started thrusting in rhythm. The Skaven answered him by emitting several high pitched squeaks and redoubling his own efforts. Johann lost track of time. Eventually, he sensed a build-up in his loins. Aching for release, he gripped the Skaven’s rough fur tighter and unleashed one last series of powerful thrusts. This time, it was his turn to squeal as he finally shot his load deep into the beast’s guts before letting his head collapse on the pillow, his strength drained. It was only then that he realized that his face and chest were covered in long ropes of a warm, sticky substance. His partner had climaxed at the same time as him and had coated him with his seed.

Still impaled on Johann’s softening cock, the Skaven chittered and sighed deeply. After catching his breath, he freed himself with a wet suction noise and lowered himself against the man, licking the semen splattered all over his body, starting from his face. “He is not going to… is he?” he wondered. Undaunted, Skitch kept working until he reached the now half-flaccid penis and cleaned it thoroughly. “Good thing you did it in that order,” chuckled Johann, slightly shocked. His job done, the Skaven nuzzled his snout against the man’s face.

“Nice-nice”

“Ahem, me too I guess?”

Johann felt exhausted. The Skaven’s fur was rough but the body pressed against him was warm and pleasant. He fell asleep without realizing it.

It was already mid-day when he woke up. He sat on his bed, his skin gritty from dried sweat, spunk and spit. “This is becoming a habit,” he mumbled to himself. He looked around him but Skitch was nowhere in sight. Without taking the time to clean himself and put on his clothes, he rushed out of the bedroom and looked around the house. The Skaven was gone. He had taken his clothes as well as a generous quantity of dried meat from the larder. Johann sighed. It was probably for the best. He had not relished the thought of turning the Skaven out of the house. Still, part of him felt sad and a bit disappointed. “Good riddance, it’s already a miracle the little bugger didn’t eat me in my sleep,” he shrugged, trying to convince himself.

As he walked back towards his room, he noticed a carefully bundled rag on the table next to the front door. Surprised, he picked it up and a small object fell to the ground. It was a strange little pendant, made of three tiny metallic bars forming a rough triangle. He contemplated it for a few seconds. Some sort of symbol? In any case, it must have meant something important to his guest.

“A rat with feelings, who would have thought?” mused the young man as he toyed with the pendant between his fingers. Perhaps Skitch would even pay him another visit someday. If he did, he would always find an open door, a warm fire and a good meal waiting for him. “And maybe something extra,” Johann smiled.