The Start of Something New

Death, he thinks, would be a blessing.

Rather that than this hopeless struggle – lungs that ache impossibly for air.

Surrender then?

The first breath of water is searing, they say. But then there follows a sweet and floating calm.

And yet, surrender?

Deny that which beats most fiercely in the breast?

No! Not even in the face of certain death.

This is not terror shrieking in his brain.

It is LIFE!

* * * * *

With a gasp of air, His head broke surface and thrashed the water from His eyes. Spitting out the murky water from his mouth, He hauled at the heavy burden He carried and dragged it towards the river bank. Kicking down, His feet touched loose sand and then stone. Ignoring the pain of a sharp outcrop digging into the soft flesh of his toes, He found a grip, and pulled. His arms ached. No, His whole body ached. Swimming wasn’t His strong point, and what He had just done would have been dubbed by others as foolish beyond belief, but how could He not? The thrashing form in the water had been helpless.

Finding softer ground beneath His feet, he dragged the form under His arm towards the bank, and fell forward, gasping. His head turned to look at the body, unmoving, half submerged in the shallow water. With one last effort, He grabbed the form under it’s arms and heaved, freeing it from the river, and safely onto the shaded bank.

It was a strange form. Not quite naked. It’s feet were booted in heavy black military-style boots, and the laces had been tied together so as to make the feet unmovable. The legs were pale and were probably once covered by a pair of army combat pants, but these had been cut – no – ripped, to form shorts. The upper torso was naked too, apart from what looked like leather straps affixed to steel rings – a harness? Something kinky going on here, He though. But a drowning man is a drowning man. The forms hands appeared to be bound too. Black leather mittens encased them, forming them into fists. These mittens had straps around the wrists, and padlocks held them in place making them impossible to remove. A short chain bound those wrists together. No wonder this man couldn’t swim! The face was young. Short dirty-blonde hair had been cropped into a military style, rather hurriedly from the looks of it. And there was a leather collar around the neck. A silver tag dangled from the D-ring, with some markings on it, but these had been scratched off roughly by some sharp implement, making the writing there unreadable.

No time to think. He turned the body face down to start pumping the water out, and gasped. A hole had been cut into the rear of the makeshift combat shorts, and sticking out of the hole was a short black length of thick latex.

Whoever did this had given him a tail!

No time to think. Straddling the body and ignoring the way the tail tapped against His back, He heaved against the form, pushing and pushing until with a horrid cough and splutter, the water spewed out from its mouth. Quickly, He checked the pulse. Beating strong. The form was breathing now, but harshly. And still unconscious. He turned the figure onto his side, trying to get it into some kind of recovery position, and ran to His car, dragging the blanket from the back seat and ran back to cover the now shivering form. Should He move him to the car and get him to a hospital? The young man might be injured. Too dangerous to move him, and too soon to tell. Damn it! His mobile was flat! He could have sworn He had charged it!

It felt like hours had passed as He sat there, watching the young man slowly ease down from shivering. Occasionally the sleeping figure would move, and He looked anxiously for some sign of consciousness. Checking that the blanket was keeping him warm, He returned to the car and opened the glove compartment, fishing around for the small kettle element He used to make a warm drink on long drives, He found it, and pushed the power line into the cigarette lighter socket. He poured water from a bottle into a cup, spooned in a little sugar and coffee that He always kept close-by for long journeys, and lowered the element into it, resting both on the passenger seat of the car as He went to the boot and fished around in the white plastic bags for the milk. This had started as a simple shopping trip. The thrashing figure in the water had only just caught His eye, and had it not been for His staying behind at the supermarket cafeteria for coffee, He would probably have missed it altogether, either from being too early to have witnessed the event, or too tired to have noticed. Thank God for Coffee, He thought as He pulled out the four-pint container of milk, and made for the passenger seat and the heating cup of water.

“Grroof?”

He dismissed the sound. Dog-walkers used the river bank to exercise their animals all the time. Although it was pretty late. He checked His watch. 2am. Damn, he was going to be dead to the world at work. He had to be up and getting ready in five hours!

“Grroof!”

He looked around absently at the sound. He froze. The figure was awake, and standing – or at least crouched on all fours, looking right at Him. The blanket had fallen to the ground from his body and he was on top of it. The latex tail seemed to be bobbing up and down slowly.
“Was that you?” He asked slowly, frowning.

The young man on all fours inclined his head slightly.

“This is no time for kinky games, lad,” He said. “You were drowning!”

The young man just lowered himself down onto his haunches and started to whine. He heard a frothing sound and swore as He turned and yanked the element’s power cord from the car. The coffee had bubbled over a little, but He raised the cup and poured a little milk into the steaming brew. Then he turned and started towards the crouched figure.

It rose upwards and started to back off.

“Easy!” He said, “I’m not gonna hurt you! I just wanna see if you’re okay!”

The young man paused and then slowly crept forwards again onto the blanket, allowing Him to approach. He placed the coffee cup onto the ground and started to gently feel around the young man’s body for injuries.

“Tell me if anything hurts, okay?” He said, but the only sound He heard was a soft lapping sound. He turned His head and saw the young man lapping at the cup.

“What’re you doing?” He asked, stunned. “Do you think you’re a dog or something?”

The young man raised his head and just looked at Him, inclining his head questioningly.

“Okay, okay,” he sighed. “Yelp if anything hurts, alright?” and, this time a little more roughly, He started patting at the young man’s body. As He reached the hole in the combats, He looked closer. The latex tail appeared to go right inside his backside, forming a part to some kind of butt plug. He took a hold and gently pulled to remove it.

“YOWWLLLL!!” the young man yelped, and spun around, knocking the cup across the bank and faced Him. “Grrrrrr!”, he started to growl.

“I only want to get that thing out of you,” He said, surprised at the reaction.

“GRRRRRRR!” the young man growled loudly and started to bear his teeth.

“I’m sorry!” He said, raising His hands in surrender. “You want it to stay, that’s fine! I just thought someone had shoved it in there!”

Again, the young man inclined his head, then looked over at the cup he had sent flying when he had yelped. Still on all fours, he walked over and picked the cup up by the handle in his teeth, and brought it to Him, dropping it at His feet. The latex tail started bouncing again. No, He realised. It was WAGGING!
“Alright,” He said. “You want to be a dog, that’s fine.”

The young man seemed to sneeze and shake his head roughly.

“Not a dog?” He asked, confused. Another sneeze.

“A . . . puppy?” He asked cautiously.

“Grroof!” came the answer.

“Alright then. You’re a puppy.” He conceded. “is there anywhere I can take you? Where do you live?”

Another incline of the head.

“That is very annoying!” He said, but couldn’t hold back a smile as He said it. “Well, if you can’t – or won’t – tell me where you live, I guess one night at my place won’t hurt.”

“Grroof! Grroof!” the ‘puppy’ answered, and seemed to bound towards the car, hopping into the back with the bags of shopping, and started sniffing around inside.

“I must be going mad!” He said, as He picked up the cup and blanket, stowing them on the passenger seat and getting behind the wheel. He looked back. The ‘puppy’ had his face buried in one of the plastic bags and seemed to be trying to open something with his teeth.

“DOWN, BOY!” He couldn’t believe He’d just said that! But the puppy looked over his shoulder and then laid down in the back.

“Yep,” He sighed. “I’m DEFINITELY going mad!”