The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories

THE PRISONER'S RELEASE AND OTHER STORIES

by Kyell Gold

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed within are fictitious.

THE PRISONER’S RELEASE AND OTHER STORIES

Copyright 2002, 2006 by Kyell Gold

“
The Prisoner’s Release” was previously published in serial form in
Heat
#1 (2002) and #2 (2003).

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Published by Sofawolf Press

St. Paul, Minnesota

http://www.sofawolf.com

ISBN 0-9769212-7-8

Printed in the United States of America

First trade paperback edition: January 2007

eBook/Kindle edition July 2009

Cover art by Sara Palmer

Dedicated to Brer and Alopex:

Tireless publishers, eagle-eyed editors, and good friends.

My thanks, many times over,

for your encouragement and assistance

in bringing these projects to light,

and for your constant friendship,

which no mere dedication can adequately describe nor repay.

Truly, you are a credit to your species.

CONTENTS:

INSIDE THE CAGE – The story of a young cougar trying to escape his profession.

THE PRISONER'S RELEASE – A prisoner and a guard discover each other's secrets and find one that they share.

HOME AGAIN – After six years away from home, how do you adjust to being back?

FOR LOVE OR FAMILY – A young noble struggles to balance his duty and his heart.

INSIDE THE CAGE

Chapter 1

There were things about Sasha that Jonas couldn’t understand, even after five years of deepening friendship working side by side at the Jackal’s Staff. For example: his constant need to spend all his spare money on the finest clothes and jewelry he could afford. “You’ll have nothing left for later,” the cougar would protest when the old(er) mouse showed off his latest acquisition. And Sasha would smile that sad smile of his and say “There won’t be any later for me, kitten.”

Jonas never enjoyed those conversations, and he would walk away from them lashing his tail, annoyed not at Sasha for his obdurate avoidance of the issue, but at himself for forgetting and bringing it up again. He would resolve to have a long and serious talk with Sasha about putting money aside, something he himself was doing assiduously, and then he would forget about it, and the next time Sasha proudly twirled in front of him to show off his new silk wrap, Jonas would be upset at himself for forgetting and would blurt out the same thing again.

Other times, Sasha was a wonderful companion, always ready with a quick joke or a gentle paw, and it wasn’t hard to see why he was in such demand. Tally’s patrons knew the mouse well and although none of the staff knew what their prices were, they knew that Sasha’s were the richest. Despite that, he never flaunted his wealth; even though his purchases were ostentatious, the pleasure he took in them was so childlike and innocent that nobody could be offended.

On the last day he ever saw Sasha, Jonas was entertaining a bear and cursing his luck for being the biggest staff member. The bear was on top of him, most of his weight pressing down on Jonas’s back and ribcage, the massive hips thrusting in and out in what was, despite the amount of lubricant Jonas had applied, a somewhat painful experience. The bear was not interested in Jonas’s pleasure, so Jonas gritted his teeth, extended his claws into the pillow, and endured the thrusts.

Finally, the bear grunted, pushed so hard Jonas thought he would be squashed into the mattress, and then sighed and settled his weight on the cougar. Jonas tried to work his paws under his chest to give himself a little more room to breathe, and that helped him make it until the bear levered himself up. The sense of relief he felt as the bear’s member slid free was the first pleasure he’d had since his client had come in.

“
Thanks,” the bear grunted, pulling his clothes on.

“
You’re welcome, my lord,” Jonas panted. He didn’t know the bear’s name, only that he was young enough to be a noble newly arrived at the city. With a bear on the throne, odds were that a bear dressing in nice new clothes was a noble of some sort. Jonas could only hope he wouldn’t become a regular.

After the bear had left, Jonas cleaned himself up and went to tell Tally he was done for the night—six clients, busy night, and he was exhausted.

The back room held a wooden board with the numbers of all the rooms on it and several metal hooks beside each number. From some of the hooks, a wooden name tag dangled. Jonas found his next to the “6” and took it down, hanging it at the bottom of the board in the area marked “off.”

Next to his tag hung one marked “Pike.” Everyone else was either out or working. Jonas looked for Sasha’s tag and found it in the “Out” space. The young cougar sighed. He’d been hoping to spend a little time with the mouse tonight, but Sasha often left as soon as he was done, as did most of the non-resident staff members. Jonas, Richy the wolf, and Alicar the bobcat were the only three who made their permanent home at the Jackal’s Staff.

He wondered where Pike was, if he was off but not out. The sturdy raccoon was often up for a game of cards, and Jonas would welcome that if he couldn’t get a massage from Sasha. Perhaps he’d forgotten to put his tag by his room number. Pike had been known to do that often, but Tally usually caught it.

Tally had an official office where money was kept under lock and key, and where he held meetings that he didn’t want people to walk in on, but before Jonas could look there, the white cougar walked in from the buzzing front room, smoothing down a close-fitting white satin dress that shimmered in the torchlight.. He glanced at the board, then at Jonas. “Hi, dear,” he said. “Signing off early tonight?”

Even though Tally’s white fur was clear of any colored designs, the dyes he used never really washed clean. Close up, the faded patterns showed ghost-like in his fur. Jonas preferred to see Tally at a distance, when he remained pure white.

Jonas smiled at the other cougar and nodded. “I’m worn out. The bear almost killed me.”

“
All right. You can go in with Van Wyck when Pike’s through. Oh, don’t give me that look. It’d be easier if you didn’t fight it every week.”

“
Wouldn’t it be better to go before I worked?”

“
It would,” Tally said, “if you didn’t start work early purposely to avoid it.”

“
Fine.” Jonas occasionally managed to miss a week, but never when Tally had specifically told him to go.

“
Good boy.” Tally grinned and patted his rump. “Do you know where Sasha went? He was supposed to be around through the morning.”

“
No. I was just wondering that.”

“
If you see him, tell him to find me.”

“
All right.” Jonas watched as Tally moved back out into the main room, tail held high, in his best maitre’d manner. The cougar greeted a guest, asking where he’d been, making Jonas wonder again how Tally could keep all those names straight in his head. Jonas could barely remember the names of the six clients he’d had that night, and he didn’t even know all of them.

He touched Sasha’s tag again, wondering where the mouse could be. If Jonas and Tally didn’t know, then Sasha hadn’t told anyone, and that was unusual even for him.

Movement in the adjoining room, where he guessed Van Wyck was, distracted him. Despite Tally’s order, he decided to take a couple minutes in his room to unwind. Maybe Richy or someone would wander in and keep Van Wyck busy.

Even though the back room was off limits to customers most of the time, it wasn’t until Jonas left it and walked down the hallway to his left that he encountered a door marked “Staff Only.” The painting over the door depicted a jackal holding a wooden staff and glaring menacingly out of the door in intentional counterpoint to the much more lewd jackal that hung over the main entrance outside.

Jonas wouldn’t have known it was a jackal if not for the name of the establishment. Sasha had recounted a tale from the famous bear explorer Pantithon describing the near-mythical creatures who supposedly lived far to the south of Tephos, but neither Jonas nor Sasha had ever seen one, nor, for that matter, ever met anyone who’d seen one. Both this picture and the sign over the main entrance bore a strong resemblance to a fox, and it was likely that both had been modeled after one.

The Jackal’s Staff sprawled in the middle of its block, with additions reaching around behind other buildings and actually on top of one. Its stone and wood construction had been retouched several times, so that it appeared to be several different buildings glued together. Inside, the décor was impeccable, attended to by Tally personally, and you could barely tell when you were passing from the original building into one of the newer additions.

The original building had been what was now the lounge, a large, comfortable room where the patrons could rest and listen to music while waiting for a staff member--they made that joke a lot--to become available, or while checking out the other patrons. Tally employed two young male servants, currently a grey fox and a weasel, to serve drinks and clear the tables. Jonas had performed that job when he first arrived while he was trained for his current work; after him there had been nobody and the clients were allowed to serve themselves. He hadn’t met the fox or weasel, and likely never would unless they were being groomed to join him in working the back side--another joke they made a lot.

On the other side of the “Staff Only” door were the staff lounge and the staff’s private rooms. The staff lounge was the room in the Jackal’s Staff that felt most like home to Jonas. He spent a good deal of his time here on one of the sofas playing cards or dice, chatting with the others, or reading the graffiti left by the many people who’d worked there. Jonas had contributed his own little bit, an uninspired “Jonas was here” over the sofa in one of the corners. Other pieces of graffiti bespoke the hard work that the residents put in (“Sucked a dozen cocks tonight / I can’t talk, can only write –Yeffis” or “Entertained a group of four / They had fun and now I’m sore—Wallace”).

He could see only a few of the words in the low light of the one lit oil lamp, but his nose told him who was in the room, curled up on the sofa furthest from the lamp. He padded past the empty sofas and unlit lamps to the sleeping figure and touched his shoulder gently, then shook it.

“
Mmm. Mmf?” The bobcat blinked and looked up.

“
Alicar. You seen Sasha?”

The bobcat shook his head, then sniffed the air. “Can smell’m, though.”

“
Yeah, I thought he’d been here with you. Sorry to wake you.”

“
No problem.” Alicar yawned, showing his narrow teeth. “Catch you later.”

“
Yeah.” Jonas padded to the back of the room and opened the door. Chances were Sasha was gone now; the corridor he now stood in had eight small rooms off it and ended in the plain door above which some long-gone wag had painted a generic rear end with the tail raised and the tailhole clearly visible—the “staff entrance,” Sasha had explained to a perplexed Jonas his first week.