The dark sea rose like a living thing, black water licking higher and higher up the colossal trunk until the lower world vanished entirely. No moonlight, no starlight, only the absolute, crushing dark of the Forgotten Shore at night. The Ancient tree groaned as the tide pressed against it, waves slapping the bark far below in slow, deliberate beats:
thump… thump… thump…
Each impact vibrated through the branch they clung to, a heartbeat from something ancient and hungry beneath.
They had wedged themselves into the narrow cradle where a massive limb met the trunk, backs pressed to rough bark, knees drawn up. There was barely room for two. Nephis sat in front, Sunny behind, his chest to her spine, arms locked around her waist like iron bands. Neither spoke. Speaking felt like an invitation.
Somewhere far below, something vast exhaled, a low, wet sound that carried up through hundreds of meters of water and wood. Nephis's breath hitched; Sunny felt it against his forearms. She was trembling, tiny, almost imperceptible shivers that only someone plastered to her body would notice. The proud, unbreakable Changing Star, afraid. It made the terror feel real in a way his own racing pulse never could.
He tried to focus on anything else. Failed.
Because Nephis was warm, alive, her ass nestled perfectly against his groin, and the thin fabric of his clothes might as well have been nothing. His cock, traitorous and insatiable, had been half-hard since the moment they settled in. Now, with the dark pressing in and adrenaline sharp on his tongue, it thickened fully, rigid and aching, trapped between his stomach and the soft give of her backside.
Sunny clenched his jaw so hard it hurt. Not now, you absolute degenerate.
But the tree rocked gently with the next wave, and the motion rolled Nephis's hips back against him. Just once. A slow, helpless grind.
A shudder ripped through him. He buried his face in the crook of her neck to muffle the groan that tried to escape.
Nephis went very, very still.
Then, deliberately, she shifted again, pressing back harder, the plush curve of her ass cradling his cock like it belonged there. Sunny's arms tightened around her waist on instinct, fingers splaying over her bare stomach . Her skin burned against his palms.
Another wave. Thump. The tree swayed, and this time she rolled her hips in a slow, deliberate circle, grinding down until the head of his cock nudged the cleft of her ass through their clothes. Sunny bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood, trying, failing, to stay quiet.
Nephis's hand found his, guided it lower, until his palm cupped the heat between her legs. Even through seaweed bikini he could feel how soaked she was, how her body answered fear the same way his did: with raw, reckless need.
She turned her head just enough that her lips brushed the shell of his ear.
"Quiet," she breathed, so softly the word was barely air. "If you can stay silent… you can have me. Right here."
Her hips rolled again, slow and filthy, riding the length of his trapped cock in time with the dark sea's rhythm. Sunny's vision whited out for a second. He nodded against her shoulder, frantic, desperate.
Below them, something enormous brushed the submerged trunk, wood creaking like a scream.
Neither of them made a sound as Nephis reached back, fingers fumbling at his waist, freeing him into the cold night air. The head of his cock slipped between her thighs, sliding along slick, swollen folds, teasing but not entering, not yet.
Thump… thump… thump…
The waves kept time. Their bodies moved to it, slow, grinding, breathless friction in the absolute dark, two terrified humans fucking the fear out of each other a hundred meters above an abyss that wanted to swallow them whole.
And not a single moan escaped their lips.
thump… thump… thump…
Each impact rolled through the branch and into their bones, rocking them together in a rhythm older than fear.
Nephis's back was sealed to Sunny's chest, her taller body folded into the cradle of his arms. There was no space to move, no space to hide. Only the slick heat of her skin, the frantic drum of her pulse under his palm, and the thick, aching length of his cock wedged tight between the plush cheeks of her ass.
He was so hard it hurt. Every tiny shift dragged the bare head along the seam of her, painting her with the bead of precum that leaked in a steady pulse. Nephis answered by arching, just enough, pressing back until the crown nudged the soaked leaves covering her cunt. A single thin leaf. That was all that separated them from complete ruin.
Sunny's breath scraped raw against her neck. He could smell her, salt and smoke and the sharp, unmistakable scent of her arousal, thick enough to taste. His hands slid under the top of her bikini, palms skating over the rigid peaks of her nipples, rolling them slow and cruel until she shuddered hard enough for him to feel it in his teeth.
She reached back blindly, nails raking his thigh, and hooked her fingers into his waistband. fabric tore. His cock sprang free into the cold, slapping heavy and wet against the cleft of her ass. Nephis didn't wait. She shoved his trousers down just far enough, baring herself to the night, and guided him between her thighs.
Not inside. Not yet.
The slick lips of her pussy kissed the underside of his shaft, hot and swollen and dripping. She clamped her thighs shut, trapping him in velvet heat, and rolled her hips in a slow, filthy grind that dragged him from root to tip through her folds. Every forward slide bumped her clit against the ridge of his cockhead; every backward drag coated him in another gush of her slick.
Sunny bit down on the curve where her neck met shoulder to choke the groan that tried to rip out of him. The taste of her skin flooded his mouth, copper and salt and Nephis.
Below, something vast circled the tree. Wood groaned. Water hissed. A low, hungry thrum vibrated up the trunk and into their joined bodies, matching the rhythm she set, slow, merciless, silent.
Nephis reached down between her legs and spread herself open with two fingers, letting the fat head of his cock catch at her entrance on every backward stroke. Just the tip, never deeper, stretching her open for a heartbeat before she slid forward again, denying them both. Her inner walls fluttered against nothing, greedy, desperate. Each near-breach drew a fresh rush of wetness that soaked his balls and dripped in slow rivulets down the bark.
Sunny's hand left her breast and clamped over her mouth, not to silence her, she was already terrifyingly quiet, but to feel the shape of the sound she refused to make. Her tongue licked his palm, hot and wet, teeth grazing the heel of his hand in warning, in promise.
He answered by shifting his hips and driving forward in one brutal, soundless thrust.
There was no resistance. She was so wet, so ready, that he sank to the hilt in a single stroke, her cunt swallowing him in a scalding, greedy clutch. Nephis's whole body locked up; her back bowed, thighs trembling around his cock, inner muscles rippling in a frantic, milking wave. A muffled cry vibrated against his palm, raw and animal.
Sunny didn't move. Couldily couldn't. The tree rocked again, harder, and the motion fucked her on him without either of them needing to thrust, slow, deep rolls that ground his pelvis against her ass and dragged the head of his cock across that spot inside her that made her spine melt.
Her hand shot between her legs, fingers finding her clit in tight, frantic circles. He felt the moment she started to come, her cunt clamping down so hard his vision sparked white at the edges, rhythmic pulses that tried to drag him over with her. Sunny clenched his jaw until it ached, staving it off, because if he came now the sound would tear out of him and whatever waited beneath the dark water would hear.
Nephis sagged, boneless, impaled and trembling. Only then did he let himself move, short, vicious snaps of his hips that kept him buried deep, grinding, churning his cock inside her spasming walls. Each tiny thrust punched a silent gasp against his palm.
Another circle of the unseen scavengers. The tree shuddered. The rhythm changed, faster, harder, and Sunny matched it, fucking her in perfect sync with the unseen monster below, claiming her with every brutal, muffled stroke while the dark sea tried to claim them both.
When he finally came it was with his teeth sunk deep in her shoulder, her name a silent scream against her skin. His cock jerked, flooding her in thick, scalding pulses that overflowed and ran hot down her thighs, mixing with her own release, dripping into the void.
They stayed locked together, shaking, breathing through their noses in shallow, desperate sips. Far below, the water stilled.
Whatever hunted them had passed.
For now.