Hello there once again! Has it been a month already? ...sorry for being away for so long again, my life is still a bit messy, but thanks goodness things are finally settling down. Anyway, here is the sixth chapter of my first book, I hope you all enjoy it! As always, please do leave your thoughts down below, any feedback will be very much appreciated, and see you all next week!

[Here] is my Google Drive repository, with all the latest versions.

You can also find me on [Twitter] / [Reddit] / [FurAffinity] / [SoFurry]

Thumbnail image by [[John Bevan]

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Chapter 06

(LUCAS)

We were kissing, our bodies draped over each other, my ears flicking as he caressed it, sparks of pleasure running to my spines, involuntary little noises scaping my throat, tongue exploring and curling when I heard something.

Little footsteps, so light and careful that it might have gone unnoticed if it weren't for my long ears. Thankfully the little waterfall hadn't been enough to mask the sound, at least not at the distance we were from it.

I reluctantly disengaged from the kiss, which got a puzzled look from Luiz, and turned my head to look around. The sound was definitely getting shaper, coming from the direction we came by. At that, Luiz also seemed to notice something, looking in the same direction.

I urged him to follow me, and we went to the waterfall, the only thing I could think that might mask our presence, cloaking us under its sound and running water. My heart was beating as fast as it could, and my fur would be all frisky if it weren't soaked.

Under the waterfall we hid, luckily it was shallow enough that we could stay on our feet as the water ran over our head and shoulders. A short while later a feral black jaguar showed up at the path we came. It looked around, sniffing, checking for other animals.

Luiz placed an arm around my shoulder, squeezing me tight against him, and gave a fierce look in the direction of the wild animal, that was still unaware of our presence.

A few short moments later, the panther found our clothes, sprawled near the pond margin. It sniffed at it for a bit and then looked around once more, trying to find its owners.

I sank back into Luiz warm embrace, and he tightened it, trying to reassure me. We stayed like that for a minute until the panther approached the waterline, a few meters from us, slowly hunching downwards to drink from the pond.

When it got back up, it looked straight in our direction, finally releasing that we were there. It slowly retreated backward, eyes locked on us, muzzle wrinkled in a snarl, tail slashing, ears down in a defensive stance. Luiz at my side seemed to do exactly the same, which was a bit unsettling.

Eyes locked, they stayed like that for what seemed like ages, and then the wild animal finally turned back and pounced into the forest, vanishing in an instance. My heart rate was through the roof, and I could tell that so was Luiz's.

"We better get out of here," he said as he went to the margin, bringing me with him. We quickly dressed up, dampening our clothes with our soaked fur in the process, and then we followed the path out of the forest.

The late afternoon was beautiful, and a cool breeze welcomed us to the meadow, our fur slowly drying from its dampness. On the horizon, we could see a few barn and houses as well as a few cows lazily grazing all around.

Luiz broke the silence with a light fist bump on my side and said, "that was quite scary, huh?"

"Uh-huh" I responded while rubbing my shoulder.

"Hey, what a beautiful creature... I kinda understand why you like them so much." He smiled and winked at me.

I giggled in response and he placed his warm arm on my shoulder, bringing me close to him, and then kissed my cheek, at which I flushed and splayed my ears.

"You are so adorable, you know that?" he said.

I looked into his gorgeous green eyes, smiling widely, at which he gave me a caring like on my snout. And so we went back to the farm, my tail wagging, his arm around my shoulder, and his tail curled around my hips.

As we got closer to my house, I reluctantly dislodged myself from Luiz's embrace, at which he said, "I had to tell you something, Lucas." He paused for a moment, thinking. "But it has been such a good day, and didn't really wanna ruin it." He had a saddened look on his face, still unsure if he should proceed further.

"What is it?" I replied softly as I touched his arm.

"I... Huh..." He looked around for a bit and then grabbed my hand and led me to a big tree nearby. There, we sat in the grass underneath it, and then he turned to me, scratching behind his head.

"Alice was quite pissed." He looked at his knees for a moment, and then continued, "she kind of said that she would expose us..."

"What?" I stuttered out.

"Hey, stay calm, she probably won't." He placed his paw on my knee, his lips down in concern.

"B-but what if she does?" I managed after a moment.

"I don't know... we could deny it, I guess." He stared at his knees once again, his ear flat against his head.

"Hey... it's not like that, I mean..." I placed my paw over his.

"I know... it just isn't fair... that is all."

I squeezed his paw against mine. "Yeah."

He looked at me for a moment, and then said, "I thought you would be more freaked out about it."

"Oh..." I looked briefly down while rubbing my arms. "I don't know... I guess being with you calms me down."

He gave me an emotional smile at that. "You are such an amazing guy, you know that?" he hugged me tightly, purring loudly. I settled on his embrace as he nuzzled the side of my head, his warm scent filling my nostrils.

After a few wonderful moments like that, we reluctantly disengaged, knowing that we should get back to the farm before the sun went down.

***

When we reached the farmhouse porch the sun was nowhere to be seen, and we were immediately aware of my father, his guffaw quite audible beneath the sound of some comedy movie on his old TV.

As we got inside, he turned his head and said, "Ohh, there you are! For a moment I thought you both were going to camp outside or something." He got up from his old leather chair and led us to the kitchen. "Come, the dinner is getting cold already."

At the kitchen, we served ourselves with a bowl of warm chicken soup and went back to the living room table. As we were settled, my father said, "So, how was the cleaning, Luiz?"

"Oh..." He scratched his muzzle, wondering. "Kind of exhausting, I guess."

"I bet." He started chewing a spoon full of chicken while looking at both of us. After swallowing it, he gave Luiz a quizzical look and said, "anyway... what is so interesting over here that is worth cleaning a stable for?"

"I... huh... I was kind of bored, I suppose, there isn't much going on back in São Felix."

"I see" my father swallowed another spoonful of soup, and then said, "what about that pretty girl I saw you with?"

"Oh... Alice? We had an argument..."

Luiz seemed unsure how to continue for a little while, so my father ended up saying, "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope things settle down for you." He took a sip from his beer and then looked at me. "What about you son, when will you introduce me to that cute capybara?"

I shifted in my chair, a bit uncomfortable about the subject, and Luiz seemed to notice it too, so he curled his tail around mine, away from my father's view. "She is just a friend, dad."

"Yeah... Sure thing." He drank from his beer once again and then proceeded. "You know son, it's about time for you to start looking for a girlfriend. It worries me that you hadn't, when I was at your age I couldn't think about anything else."

"I just hadn't found anyone interesting... that is all," I said while looking down at my soup bowl, the vegetables and chicken slices floating around as I fidgeted with it. Luiz tightened his tail around mine, doing his best to comfort me.

We ate silently for a while, but we eventually started talking about other things, and soon the dinner was over. My father retired to the live room to watch TV, while I and Luiz went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

I was still a bit nervous while we started cleaning the bowls, I couldn't stop thinking about how my father would handle my sexuality, but knowing him, it couldn't end up well.

Luiz at my side leaned against me, his warm arm against mine. "Hey, are you okay?" he whispered softly in my ears.

I looked at him for a moment, his touch already calming me a bit. "I'm just a bit worried, that is all."

"About what?"

"Ah, you know, that whole relationship talk."

"Oh... my parents keep asking me the same thing over and over."

"Are you gonna tell them?"

"I don't know yet." He looked partially down, thinking.

"How do you think they gonna handle it?"

"I guess my mother would be fine with it. I'm not sure about my father, though."

"Yeah, me too." I grimaced while vacantly watching the water running over the dishes. "What about that thing with Alice, though?"

Luiz looked briefly at the living room, where the loud sound of some action movie came from and then turned to face me again. "Hey." He got hold of my paw under the running water. "It's gonna be ok, alright? We are gonna handle it, even if she does end up exposing us, no one will believe her, anyway"

"Yeah... but what about our parents, they surely will hear about it, eventually." I sighted. "Mine is already pestering me about this relationship shit, what about then?"

"I don't know, Lucas, we could just tell them, I guess."

"What?" My fur got a bitty frisky at that. "No... that will not end up well, not at all. My father would freak out!"

"Wow... why do you think so?"

"He supports that whole pro-family bullshit from our president, not to mention how pissed he was at that gay couple kissing on national TV... he didn't even watch that show, to begin with!"

He tightened his grip on my paw. "Ok, ok. Bad idea. Sorry."

I took a moment to recompose myself, and then said, "What should we do?"

"I don't know. They will eventually forget about it, I suppose." He rubbed my paws. "Anyway, no point worrying about it now."

"Okay," I said while trying my best to dispel my concern.

He gave me a compassionate smile before releasing my paws and gentle caressing my ear. "Ok, let's get this over with," he said while gesturing to the remaining dishes.