Sharkies In A Not So Paradise
By Musuko

Sunny days out amongst the tropical islands of the lagoon sea are the gloss that makes the world shine like a pearl in the cosmos. The surface of the water glowed with a heated sheen. The air hung still and hot, but not heavy, every bit as dry as the white sand upon which the lazy surf lapped. The jungle further inland sweltered, overgrown, but tame, being home to nothing more threatening than colourful birds and succulent Damaria fruit.
	Bruna stared across the calm water to the island beyond, his elbows resting on the flaking paint of the Lucky Suzanne’s gunwale, his sleek muzzle resting on his arms.
	“Man that beach looks comfy.”
	His brother and twin, Paok, failed to respond. He swung his arm, smooth skin glistening wet in the sunlight, and cast the anchor into the water. He played the rope out across his palms, easing the descent.
	“Really comfy I mean. You could fall asleep in that sun and just feel so good. Wouldn’t it be great?”
	“I heard you the first time.”
	Bruna sighed and stood up, graceful enough to keep the small boat from rocking.
	“How long has he been down?”
	Paok lifted his head to squint at the sun. “About an hour. He’ll be back up soon.”
	“I hope so. I’m getting hungry.”
	The rope went slack in Paok’s fingers. He tied off the rope. “You ate two hours ago.”
	“Yeah, well.” He held up his arms, striking a pose, nude body catching the light, showing every muscle, every feature that, mirrored in his brother, nakedness and all, made the shark twins much admired and sought after back at the village. “This body needs a lot of fuel to keep it looking so good.”
	“Uhuh.” Paok’s eyes were fixed on a distant point on the water, where a v-shaped ripple was expanding outwards.
	“Oh hey! He’s here. Shall we head out to him?”
	“No need. He’ll be here in a moment.”
	The disturbance in the water grew closer. At the point of the ripple slid Aelock’s slender fin, cutting the sea in a neat slice around it. It came unerringly towards the boat, gaining speed. At nine tail’s distance it slid beneath the surface. A moment later, at three tail’s distance, the water broke in a shower of spray, and Aelock’s body, sharp and smooth, curved out of the water like an arrow and came down for a light landing on the boards, barely rocking the Lucky Suzanne beneath him. He stood straight and smoothed his palms back over his eyes, shaking off salt water. A fellow shark, but smaller and lighter-skinned; a mottled grey, with a hint of darker grey striping down his back, compared to the uniform deep bronze of the twins. He faced them, eyes alight with eager energy.
	“You’d be even better at that if you weren’t wearing that,” said Bruna, nodding towards Aelock’s loincloth.
	“So you keep saying. I found something.”
	“Pearls? I’ll get the basket. Where are they?”
	“Not pearls. Something better. Something much more interesting.”
	Paok nudged Bruna aside, moving to stand in front of, and over, Aelock. He fixed him with a firm stare. “Found what, exactly?”
	“It’s…” Aelock waved his arms helplessly. “Big. Look, I could tell you. Or I could just lead you there and show you. It’s more exciting that way. A surprise.”
	“I don’t like surprises. I’d much rather you-”
	“Aw come on, Puck-Puck,” said Bruna, pushing at his brother’s shoulder. “Don’t spoil the surprise.”
	“We came out for pearls, not surprises.”
	Aelock smiled. “I think you’ll like this surprise. Come on.”
	And in the next instant he was gone, replaced by a small splash and an expanding circle of ripples.
	Paok caught Bruna’s muzzle and squeezed, puckering his lips. He gave it a shake. “Don’t call me Puck-Puck in front of him.”
	“Sorreh Puh-Puh” said Bruna. Paok let go.
	“Alright then. I guess we’re going down.”
	Simultaneously, they dived. Their larger, more muscular bodies had more power than Aelock’s, but less grace. The sea erupted around their entry, and the Lucky Suzanne’s rocked in their wake. But within minutes the sea was calm once more, and the little row boat floated alone and still, as the three sharks swam into the cool depths below.

Aelock’s small form, swimming twenty or so tails below, was difficult to see visually, even in the clear blue water of the lagoon sea. But in the water their noses were now brightly alive with scents that were mere dust shadows in the air. Aelock’s distinctive musk, flavoured with the particular aromatic tinge of his southern shore heritage, flowed across the noses of the twins as they descended after him. To an even greater degree, his image shone brilliantly in their third eye; the one that opened only under water, the one that let them sense any living thing around them, as crackling, sizzling trembles, part vision, part sound. On the land, their bodies were inert hulks, half-blind, clumsy and lumbering. But down here they were gods, all seeing, all knowing, and fast.
	The sea bed rose up towards them. Their eyes saw only the faint edges of waving fronds. Their other senses felt the frantic rout of a shoal of brightly-coloured glimmerfins, scared away by their arrival. Aelock floated amongst the weeds, waiting for the twins. In his hands he held the stalks of two sealights, rooted to the bed below him. He twisted each and the brittle stalks cracked. As the sea water flowed up into their hollow centres, the sealights began to glow. Aelock twisted off the flower bulbs and let them float away to the surface, then swished the stalks around him, increasing the flow of water through their centres and raising their glow to a moonlight shine that lit the weeds around them. He passed one over to Paok, then turned and swam.
	He gestured for them follow. His gills flared, the underwater equivalent of a deep breath, and turned to dart away through the weeds. The twins followed, tracing intertwined paths around weed-wraithed boulders and up the sandy slope leading to the beach above and the island beyond. Aelock twisted past a boulder far larger than the others and disappeared from view for a moment. The water here smelled different. Something in the stone. Paok paused at the stone and touched his fingers to it. Bruna doubled back and floated beside him. There, under the film of shaggy weeds, were long, straight grooves, wide enough to insert a finger, tracing a blockwork pattern across the face of the boulder.
	Aelock appeared back at the edge of the boulder, waving for them to follow. There, shaded by the bulk of the boulder, a great maw in the sea floor waited, black and deep and unnaturally rectangular. Aelock darted down into it, the pale light of his sealight stalk briefly illuminating the rough walls of the passage beyond. Bruna paused at the entrance, exchanging a look with Paok, who shook his head. Bruna shrugged and kicked off, down into the darkness. Paok could not call after him, but the water surged with the primal scent of his frustration, and he dived down after the other two.
	The tunnel dropped two tails, then turned sharply level. Down here, the weeds had failed to take hold. Crustaceans scuttled into gaps in the walls, or buried themselves in the sandy drifts on the floor. Aelock slowed to allow the twins to catch up, and together they swam slowly along. Paok glanced back. The entrance was no-longer visible in the faint outer edges of the glow of their sealights. But turning back, up ahead was another light, one that grew brighter as they approached. The tunnel above them rose away, then opened out wide to the mirror gloss of the water’s surface. Aelock kicked upwards, and the three breached together, into the rush of sound and numbing emptiness of open air.
	They had surfaced into a lagoon, somewhere inland on the island. The high cliffs on all sides were festooned and knotted with creeping vines. High above, sunlight streamed in through the palms of the jungle above.
	“Whoah,” said Bruna. “What is this place?”
	“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” said Aelock. He pulled himself out of the water, climbing to sit on a half-submerged boulder of distinctly angular shape. Paok followed suit, water cascading off his naked body. The mossy rock felt cool and soft beneath his feet. He frowned, looking down at its shape, then up at the gap in the cliffs above, then at the cliffs themselves.
	“Oh!” he said.
	“Cool, isn’t it?”
	“What?” said Bruna. “What’s cool? What is it?” He swam over and clung to the edge of the boulder, looking up at the other two.
	“The cliffs,” said Paok. “They lean inwards. The hole at the top is smaller than the pool down here. And the edges of the hole are all corners.” He crouched down and patted the boulder he stood on. “Like this block here. I think we’re inside a building.”
	“It’s better than that,” said Aelock, grinning excitedly. “It’s a pyramid! A really old one! Maybe even...I daren’t even say it. But, you know who used to build pyramids. And look at the size of it. And the shape. Think about it for a minute. Look at how big it is, compared to the island.”
	Bruna looked all around, spinning on the spot in the water. “Oh. Oh! I get it now. Whoah, that’s…”
	“The whole island,” said Paok. “Is one big pyramid.”
	Aelock’s grin was threatening to split his head in two. His sharp teeth gleamed. “Told you it was interesting. Want to explore?”
	Bruna slapped the boulder. “Hell yeah!”
	“Wait,” said Paok. “Is that really a good idea? We came out here for pearls, not to go exploring a ruin.”
	“We can find pearls any day. Pearls can wait. Come on.” Bruna kicked off towards the edge of the pool, where a jumble of broken stone blocks merged with the leaves of the vines, up towards a flatter, sand-strewn platform. “Maybe there’s treasure.”
	Aelock sprung from his spot on the boulder, hopping across a gap to another, chasing after Bruna. “Ooh, do you think? Come on Puck-Puck, let’s go find treasure.”
	Paok shot a glare across to Bruna, who looked back, stony-faced, with only a hint of a suppressed smile. “Aelock,” he said. “Don’t call him that. He doesn’t like being called that. Isn’t that right, Puck-Puck?”
	“I’m going to kill you both, I swear.”
	Aelock and Bruna were both up on the platform and threading through the vines and tumbled stone as Paok pulled himself up. As he looked, they both stopped and stared upwards. He paused, doing the same.
	“Whoah.”
	“I know, right?”
	“Hey, don’t touch it.”
	Bruna looked back, his hand up, fingers hovering just above the stone. “Why not?”
	Paok hurried over, easing to a stop a few tails away. He stared uneasily up at the stone. “I think you should come away from it.”
	Aelock and Bruna stared at him, then back up at the stone. “Why? It’s just a statue. Alright, it’s pretty creepy. But don’t you think it’s interesting? Look at it, it’s got three heads! And it’s huge!”
	“And unlike everything else here made of stone,” said Paok, “it’s not covered in weeds. It’s completely clean. Don’t you think that’s a bit worrying?”
	Bruna pulled his fingers back, clasping his hand in the other. He and Aelock, as one, hesitantly stepped backwards. The statue loomed above them, its three carved heads and thick stone trunk laced with intricate carved swirls and stars. The eyes were cast upwards, featureless and unblinking, and the mouths were open, lips pulled back, stone teeth bared and gaping at the broken ceiling above.
	“Now that you mention it,” said Bruna, “it is a bit.”
	“Yeah,” agreed Aelock. “I think we should explore a bit somewhere else.
	“Why do you think it’s got nothing growing on it?”
	“Poison,” said Paok sharply. “Like on the black fields.”
	Bruna and Aelock scrambled backwards, moving to stand alongside Paok. “You can’t know that!” Bruna brushed at his fingers, as if trying to wipe away invisible contagion. “It’s just a rock! It can’t be like the black fields. It’s not...it’s not got dust on it for one thing.”
	“Well, how do you explain it? Whatever it is, I think we should leave it alone.”
	“Hey, guys?”
	The twins looked around, and down, at Aelock, who was crouched amongst the weeds.
	“Look at this.”
	Something glimmered gold amongst the leaves. The twins crouched down either side of him.
	“Whoah,” said Bruna. “Treasure!”
	He reached to part the leaves. Aelock pulled at their stems. Paok reached in to grab at their wrists.
	“Wait, don’t touch it! It could be dang-”
	Like iron to a lodestone, their fingers were sucked in towards the gold, and all at the same moment they touched it, and the world flashed white for the three sharks…

Bruna woke to the sound of screaming, high-pitched and very close. It lanced icy pain through his head and made his ear sting. He lifted his arm to cover it and found...nothing. His left arm was numb, doing nothing. He opened his eyes.
	The tangled vines above were cut now with the shadows of early evening. Broken stone and itchy leaves pressed into his back. The screaming was right beside his left ear. Again, his numb left arm refused to respond. He turned his head and came nose to nose with Aelock, the source of the screaming.
	“Would you stop that noise, please?” The voice was Paok’s, coming from somewhere close. He lifted his head, unable to see him. His head spun, confused, and something felt very wrong indeed.
	“Pucky?” he said. His left leg was numb too. He looked down at himself…
	His scream started low, but rolled up through the pitches until it almost matched Aelock’s, a peircing shriek of horror that filled the cavern and sent unseen small creatures scurrying away through the undergrowth.
	“Would you stop!” It was Paok again, coming from the left, beyond Aelock’s head. Bruna turned to look, seeing Paok’s face there, where it had no right to be. He inhaled deeply, another scream readying. And the next thing he felt was the reeling spin and the pain blossoming in his nose. Paok’s fist pulled away, uncurled and shook, fingers limp.
	“That hurt!”
	“Good! Help me with him!”
	“What? How?”
	Paok’s hand came down over Aelock’s muzzle, doing nothing to close it and stem the flow of anguished screaming. “Hold his lower jaw. Use your right arm.”
	In a daze, Bruna obeyed, and between the two of them they squeezed Aelock’s mouth shut. The sound didn’t end, but it muffled down to a tolerable whine, for as long as they held his mouth shut.
	“What the hell is going on?” hissed Bruna. He gestured with his muzzle down towards his body, wincing and flinching away, unable to stay looking at it.
	“We’ll worry about that in a minute. For now-”
	“I’m going to worry about it now! What happened...what happened to me? What happened to us?”
	“I told you it was a bad idea coming here.”
	“Right now? Really?” Bruna’s fingers slipped on Aelock’s muzzle, and the scream rose.
	“Don’t let go!”
	They clamped hold tighter.
	“The way I see it,” said Paok, breathing deeply, “is like this.” He seemed to steady himself, taking a moment for a deep breath. “We’ve become...mixed together, somehow.”
	Bruna struggled to respond. He felt his own small whine grow in his throat.
	“I see two legs down there,” continued Paok, calm and logical, but he couldn’t hide the shake in his voice. “The left one is mine. I can feel it. Can you feel your right leg?”
	Bruna wiggled his toes. He couldn’t bring himself to look. “Are the toes moving?”
	“They are. So that leg is yours. And that arm is yours, and this one is mine. We’ve figured that out. The chest is...well, it’s hard to see properly from here, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s wider than it should be-”
	“Should be? Should be! How wide should a chest should be when there are three heads on top!”
	“Well, there is that.”
	Aelock’s whine had faded in volume. The twins tentatively released their grip.
	“And Aelock here. Well, she just seems to be along for the ride in the middle.”
	It took Bruna a moment. “Wait, what? She?”
	Paok’s expression tensed. Bruna watched his hand move down their combined body. At the hips, the width became normal. The skin was toned as a mix of the three, with Aelock’s grey shot down the centre, in mottled striped bands between the dark bronze of the twins. There at the crotch, twin bronze cocks lay limp either side of Aelock’s loincloth, which had its laces undone. Aelock’s whine grew louder again as Paok lifted up the loincloth. Bruna gasped.
	“Oh fuck. Aelock’s a girl?”
	“It seems that way.”
	“That explains the loincloth at least! Oh wow. Just...wow.”
	In the midst of the whine came a quavering voice between the twins. “I’m not a girl!” The smaller shark’s head turned, butting against Paok’s neck. “I’m a guy! I’m just...different.”
	Paok lay the loincloth back. “Now’s really not the time to-”
	“Bullshit! Now’s definitely the time!” Bruna yanked the loincloth back up, flinging it away and then gesturing to the offending female slit beneath. “When were you going to tell us about this!”
	“It was none of your business!”
	“That’s right,” said Paok, cold and sharp. “And it’s still none of our business. What we need to worry about now is-”
	“What we’re going to do about this messed up insanity?”
	“That’s right. Can we sit up?”
	“I can’t...I don’t think.”
	“I can,” said Aelock, through wet sniffles. “I think I ended up with that bit.”
	The twins felt the alien sensation of rising up while their bodies felt numb and unresponsive. The torso was Aelock’s, it seemed, and they rose to sit.
	“I think,” said Aelock, his composure returning rapidly. “I think...we need to find that gold thing. And...I want my loincloth back. Please.”
	“Afterwards,” said Paok. “Gold thing first. Bruna, can you move?”
	“This leg and this arm. And...uh.” The right-most cock twitched. “And my cock, I guess.”
	“Not exactly useful. Does anyone remember where the gold thing...oh.”
	They had all seen it, at the same time. Up on an exposed fragment of stone, nowhere near where they had found it, was the gold object; a small statuette, the size of a palm, and designed to match the large three-headed stone in miniature. The three heads were cast upwards, moves open. They looked like screams now. It stood before the larger stone statue, bathed in the rich evening light.
	“I think it’s safe to say,” said Paok, “that was the cause of...this.”
	“Is this…”
	“Don’t say it, Bruna. Don’t-”
	“...magic?”
	The three tensed, looking uneasily around them. Nothing happened. The pyramid walls didn’t fall in. The sky didn’t cloud blood red. The ground didn’t split asunder. All the same, Paok’s arm swung round to thump Bruna on the back of the head.
	“Hey!”
	“Haven’t we tempted the world enough as it is? Now work with me! We’ve got to stand up. Let’s get that thing and have a closer look at it, while it’s still light.”
	“I don’t think this is a good idea,” said Aelock. “I don’t-”
	“Well we’ve got the arms and the legs,” said Paok. “So just be quiet. Bruna, on three. One. Two…”
	They hauled themselves up, collapsing forward onto their knees. Arms spun and grasped at vines, tearing some from their mounts, as the heavy body fell forwards, faces landing amongst the leaves.
	“Okay,” said Paok. “So, not a great success. Let’s try again.”
	“Hold on a moment,” said Bruna. “Just...hold on. Put your arm...yes, there, like that.”
	In a rolling, lumbering heap, they hauled themselves up onto all fours. Bruna pushed up too far on his side, sending their balance over onto Paok’s arm, which buckled and nearly sent them crashing again. Paok’s shoulder caught against the vines and gave him enough leverage to push back up. Unsteadily, with taut muscles and held breaths, the twins waited until they were certain they were steady.
	“I think we’ve got it,” said Paok. “I think.”
	“Guys, really,” said Aelock. “Please don’t touch that thing. We don’t know what it’ll do.”
	“We’ve got to,” said Paok. “There’s no choice. What else can we do, just stay like this forever?”
	“We can...we can go get help. Back on the mainland.”
	“How do you think we’ll get out of here, huh? We can barely move like this. I don’t think we’d be able to swim back through that tunnel.”
	“With practice, maybe…”
	“Brace yourself guys,” said Bruna.
	“What?”
	Their body rocked to the side, teetering on Paok’s arm, as Bruna shot his out to grab at the statue. His fingers brushed against it, sending it rocking, then tumbling down towards them. Bruna fumbled it in the air as Paok’s arm rocked them back, and down they went again in a tumbled heap, faces in the leaves, but Bruna’s hand held up triumphantly, clutching the little statue in his fingers.
	“Got it.”
	“That’s great,” said Paok flatly. “I’ve got a mouthful of pebbles.”
	“Sorry.”
	“Okay, I’m pushing against the floor and…” Their combined body rolled backwards, teetering again, before settling into a sprawled seating position on the webbed vines. “There.”
	“This thing’s heavy.” Bruna lifted the golden statue up, turning it in the fading light. “What do you think it is?”
	“Solid gold, perhaps.”
	“No, I mean, not what it’s made of; what is it? Some kind of idol?”
	“Probably.”
	“Guys,” said Aelock. “I don’t think we should be touching it. I mean, look what happened last time.”
	“We don’t even know if this thing did...this,” said Paok, gesturing down at their body. “And even if it did, it can hardly do it twice, can it? But it could change us back, maybe.”
	“Hey, look at this.”
	Bruna held the statue up close to their heads. Aelock, despite his reservations, joined the twins in peering close at the statue’s little heads. Bruna’s thumb tapped at a spot on the top of the statue’s chunky square shoulders. “Looks like little tracks on there, like it’s a-”
	“It’s a puzzle toy!” Aelock let out a laugh. His control of the torso made their whole body jolt as he leaned backwards. “Just a silly little toy!”
	“One made of gold,” said Bruna. “That might be mag-”
	“Don’t say it!”
	“I bet it’s worth a lot. Do you think there’s something inside it?”
	“Don’t do that! Stop shaking it!”
	“It looks like you slide the heads. I guess if you get the right combina-”
	A white flash filled their heads as Bruna’s thumb pushed the centre head to the edge, where that head in turn smoothly slid behind to replace the other. The three woke, much as before, staring at the cave’s ceiling, with the little golden statue laid on their bare stomach.
	“I can’t feel my arms!” cried Bruna.
	“That’s because you’re in the middle now,” said Paok. “Idiot.”
	“Whoah,” said Aelock. A hand rose, turning and flexing, with colour and build that differed from the twins, giving their combined body a lopsided appearance. “This is...really weird.”
	“I don’t like this,” whimpered Bruna. “It’s like I don’t have any arms or legs! I can’t move!”
	“How do you think I felt then, huh?”
	“Hmm,” said Paok. He lifted the statue up, inspecting the heads. “It looks like you can re-arrange us with this.” He lifted his head up to the gap above them, where the light was rapidly fading. “Sorry about this Aelock.” His thumb was on the heads, pushing.
	“Hey, what are you...no!”
	The flash came and went. The twins woke to the abject noise of Aelock’s whimpering distress, coming from between them.
	“Why do I have to be the middle? This isn’t fair!”
	“We’ve got to find somewhere to sleep,” said Paok. “Before it gets dark and cold. And Bruna and I have the same size legs and arms, and we’ve already had practice-”
	“Barely any!”
	“But more than you. We can move us easier. And we need to move now. Bruna?”
	“Yeah?”
	“Give me the statue.”
	Bruna looked at it, gleaming in his hand. “But…”
	“Bruna. Give it to me.”
	Meekly, Bruna passed it over to his brother. He set it down beside him and, with a single hand, working with dexterous skill that didn’t surprise Bruna, but had Aelock staring, tore away some vines from the ground and tied a loop around the statue’s waist. He made a second loop and tied it around his wrist, giving the statue a few fingerlengths of slack to dangle.
 	“There,” he said. “Now we can’t lose it. Okay, do you think we can stand? There’s an overhang over there, I think. If we can get in there and get a fire going.”
	“We’ll be lucky if we can crawl.”
	“Okay, then we’ll crawl.” Paok reached for the vines but found himself groping. “Aelock? A little help?”
	“Oh, sorry.” Obligingly, he bent his waist, allowing the twins to fall forwards and catch their weight on their arms. It was slow going, but like a wobbling toddler, they crawled their way into the dark fold in the rock as night began to fall.

The fire cast crazy shadows onto the walls of the tiny cave. Bruna nursed his burned fingers the only way he could; by licking them. Paok tended the fire with a stick, while Aelock slept peacefully, if not noiselessly, between them. The twins had soon found themselves almost immobile once Aelock fell asleep, with their torso now just a limp lump of uselessness. Even with their arms and legs fully under their control, it was amazing how uncoordinated and clumsy they were when their body flopped like a fish. They sat leaned against the curve of the wall, and there they would stay until morning.
	Paok set the sit down and lay his hand on his...their...stomach. “So,” he said.
	“So,” agreed Bruna.
	“When the sun’s up we need to start practicing. How to walk. How to swim. Otherwise we’re never getting out of here.”
	“Yeah.”
	“That means Aelock needs to stay in the middle.”
	“He’s not going to like that.” Bruna turned his head to look at his sleeping friend, but it was difficult: Aelock’s head had nestled in against Bruna’s neck, vibrating his quiet snoring against his skin.
	“No,” said Paok. “He’s not. So we need to keep this thing away from him.” He lifted his arm, with the statue hanging from his wrist. “But with no arms on him, that shouldn’t be too hard.”
	“I guess.”
	“We should try to get some sleep.”

Aelock stirred them awake. It was his grunting that did it in part. The rest was the incessant rocking.
	“Oh thank fuck you two,” he said. “I’ve been trying to sit upright for an hour.”
	Bruna rubbed at his eyes. Paok was still getting himself lucid. But, between the three of them, they managed to heave upright over the smouldering remains of the fire.
	“I’m hungry,” said Aelock.
	“Me too.”
	“So am I,” said Paok. “We’re all hungry. I think we’re sharing a stomach.”
	“Eww.” Aelock looked down. His eyes suddenly widened. “Do you think we share a-”
	“Yes,” said Paok sharply. “But let’s not think about that right now, okay? We need to find food. Do either of you two remember seeing any?”
	“I think I saw fruit out in the vines,” said Aelock. “Out on the...erf. I can’t point. Bruna, put your arm up. That’s it, now, to the right a bit. No, that’s left. There, that’s it. I saw fruit over that way.”
	“Okay, good job. We’ll-”
	“It was quite high up, though.”
	“Oh. Well, we’ll have to climb then, won’t we?”
	“Oh great.”

They sat under the overhang a great shattered stone beam. Around them lay the husks of an unidentified, yet delicious, species of berry that came in pairs within a pod. The shape of the pod had made Aelock giggle. Until Paok shut him down with a glare and a harsh poke to their shared stomach.
	“What?” Aelock had said. “It looks just like-”
	“Don’t say it.”
	“Like a cock.”
	“Aelock!”
	“Well,” said Bruna. “It does a little.”
	The joke had worn thin, though, especially after Bruna and Paok between them had managed to crack open the skin of the first pod to fish out the berries from within. Paok tried it first.
	“It’s that or we starve, right?” he had said. “Besides, it doesn’t matter which of us try it if we all have the same body. One gets poisoned, we all do.”
	After his approval, they each tried it, Aelock coming last, with Bruna holding a berry for him to nibble from his fingers.
	“Tastes pretty good,” said Bruna.
	“Hmm.” Aelock wrinkled his nose. “Tastes a bit like…uh, nevermind.”
	“Hmm?”
	Aelock’s slender muzzle flushed. “Nothing. I was just thinking out loud. Can I have some more?”
	There was enough fruit for them to gorge. Each in turn chewed a berry, spitting out the seeds and dropping the husks beside them. The sun rose higher, and the heat in the ruined temple grew. They were soon sweating, even with no exertion, their smooth skin gaining a sheen of sweat. Perhaps an hour passed, while the twins lightly dozed, Aelock half awake and resting his muzzle against Bruna’s neck.
	The stirring was most obvious at first with the twins. As they slept, their shared body sprawled out, half in shade, half in the sun, their twin cocks began to swell. Mirroring each other, and rising with matching pace, the endowments that were monsters when soft became titans when erect. Aelock caught the movement in the corner of his eye and was soon fully awake, silently staring, eyes wide, as the twin phalluses rose up either side of his loincloth. Either side of him, the twins slept on, murmuring in their sleep.
	“Hey,” he said. “Hey guys?”
	He had seen the twins’ cocks naked before, sure, but never like this; hard and eager and up close. He clenched his mouth shut and turned his head away, but the scent of the dewy precum glistening at their tips invaded his nose, impossible to escape. His eyes too seemed unable to pull away from them. He could see their heartbeat, bobbing both in time, twitching throbbing in the veins up the shafts.
	“Guys, wake up,” he whispered, nudging his cheek against Bruna’s sleeping muzzle.
	The legs below him shifted. And then he felt it, the sensation that had been building just past his perception, now swelling to a roar; the hot tingle in his female slit, brushed and caressed by the shifting loincloth as the legs moved. His breath caught, a gasp in his throat. Stomach tensed, head arched back, a mewling whimper finally escaping his lips.
	“W-wake up!” he cried.
	His instincts made his arms want to move, but none responded. He flexed and strained, unable to pull against the dead weight of the sleeping arms and legs attached to the torso he controlled. He prodded his nose against Bruna’s cheek, trying to rouse him. Could he scream and shout? That’d do it? But, did he want to wake them in a panic?
	“Please,” he gasped. “Please wake up.”
	The need was becoming too great. He’d have to scream. He had to get them awake, so they could…
	...what? He sobered at the thought. What would they do when they were awake? Even if they weren’t completely freaked out by the situation, the mathematics of the whole situation was all wrong; three arousals and two hands. And he was sure that they’d service themselves alone. Would either of them willingly offer a hand...literally...to help quell the burning urge of his own sex? Hell, they were barely able to acknowledge it, let alone...touch it.
	A shudder took him as Bruna shifted his legs, stroking the loincloth back across his needy lips. The whimper that escaped his lips was girlish, and it brought the heat of a blush to his muzzle. No way he could imagine it. The twins, his friends...doing that.
	It must have been the fruit, he thought, looking at the discarded husks. Something in the fruit. He tried to count the husks, but gave up in a lust-fogged daze. They had eaten so many. He was going to crazy. He just needed to stroke at his sex...just nudge that loincloth aside and caress with his fingertips, in exactly the way he knew how to, with so many years of practice. He needed it...and he wasn’t going to get it. He tried not to whimper again. Now he didn’t want to wake the twins. He didn’t want to have to lie there, suffering their own self-pleasure, watching them pant and moan and bring themselves to climax, cum splashing all over their shared body, making him feel that sticky wetness, making him drink in the musky stink of it...and then having to hear their excuses about why they weren’t going to do the same for him, leaving him burning with frustrated need, helpless to do anything about it.
	No! Aelock set his jaw firm, teeth clenched. No, he was going to do something else. But...what? The statue. That was the logical choice. Get to the statue and change the heads. Then he would be able to pleasure himself, to sate the fruit-driven lust. But how? No arms. No legs. It was there, so close, tied to Paok’s wrist. But he had nothing to reach it. The only part of the body that was his to command was the torso and...that down there...which was of no use, and his head and his…
	His tongue! He licked his lips, a plan starting to form.
	Carefully, very carefully, he turned his head to Paok. The larger shark was soundly sleeping, with a small knot of tension on his brow. His lips were parted, breath coming in small pants. Aelock could smell the berries on his breath. They smelled of cum. There was no avoiding that truth. The smell made Aelock shiver, forcing him to close his eyes.
	“I’m just doing this because I need the money.”
	“‘Course you are sweetheart. Isn’t that what they all say?”
	“Yes, but this time it’s true. I don’t even like guys.”
	“Right, right. Listen, I don’t care what you like, right? S’long as you do what I want.”
	“So long as you’re paying…”
	He had to do this part just right. Too gentle and nothing would happen. Too firm and Paok would wake up, and then he would wake up his brother, and then they would...it didn’t bear thinking about. Nor did the scented air brushing so gently over his nose. Nor the sight of Paok’s sleeping face when he opened his eyes again. Like this there was no stern commanding in his expression. In his sleep, he was relaxed and pleasant, just like his brother. Why did he have to think of this, right now, after so long of managing to suppress it? Why did he now have to wonder what it would be like to touch his lips against that smooth cheek? He bit his lip, hard, letting sharp teeth sink down into flesh. His throbbing lust abated, just for a moment, long enough for him to extend the tip of his tongue and gently tickle it against the sensitive edge of Paok’s ear hole.
	“Oh yeah, just like that.”
	He tasted unlike any other he had served. A wild man, from the distant unnamed lands to the north, skinned with fur, with strange teeth in his muzzle, with a thick, bushy tail. His scent was spiced. Exotic. He told the young shark no stories of where he came from, but he would have listened. He would have given his coins back in exchange for those stories. A whole land of men like him! A land where the shark would be the exotic, distantly foreign one, able to command respect and admiration as the furred man did here. Or perhaps the opposite would be true. Perhaps slavery still existed where he came from. Would he find myself in chains as a rare treasure? His knees pressed together, loincloth hiding his secret. More exotic than he could imagine.
	Paok’s arm lifted, just a twitch. He grunted in his sleep and wrinkled his nose. Aelock’s heart raced. Or was it their heart? What of the body was shared, and what remained separate? The heat below was a distraction. The sweltering heat made the body bask in sweaty musk, and the potent aroma of male arousal from the twins’ cocks swam in Aelock’s nose. His own scent was there too. Feminine arousal, so long hidden from them, now known to them and tickling their noses as they slept. Surely they would wake soon. Time was beating away. There was to be no delay. Aelock tried again, a sensual stroke of his tongue tip around the lip of Paok’s ear, ticklingly gentle. It stirred Aelock’s mind away to the past once more.
	“What the fuck is this?”
	The man’s seed taste still lingered on his tongue. Still more of it dripped from the shark’s muzzle. The loincloth lay on the floorboards, torn away by the man’s powerful claws. A bear, he called himself, a name that meant nothing to Aelock beyond the day’s encounter, where he was learning to associate that word with fear; a bear, powerful and masculine, and one to fear.
	“It’s…” But there were no words. There was no explanation to give. Aelock himself didn’t know why he was like he was. How then would he explain it to another.
	The bear’s paw gripped his throat. So very different from the shark’s slender hand. Its shape was different; wide and thick and with strong, calloused pads in the fur, behind those sharp claws. It lifted his knees from the floor, and then his feet. He dangled, gripping the bear’s wrists, weak and gasping.
	“Please! I…”
	“I see,” rumbled the bear. And Aelock’s feet found the floor once more. “Your parents must have visited the black fields.”
	“My...my father. He sailed-”
	“You should have told me.”
	“I’m sorry. Please...don’t hurt me. I didn’t mean to-”
	“I would have paid more.”
	The bear’s smile was a surprise. An uncommon amusement in that stern, powerful face. Aelock reeled, uncertain, and as the bear’s fingers peeled away from his throat he staggered unsteadily. “What?”
	“Women don’t sell themselves where I’m from,” said the bear. “And the men are rough, like me. But here, men and women sell themselves alike. But the women don’t smell right. And the men…”
	The bear took a step, and his tall body brushed up against Aelock’s slim, naked frame. He shivered away, tickled by the fur, scared by the closeness, by the rumble in the bear’s voice. But the scent came rising out of that fur, strange and wonderful. He felt powerless against it.
	“The men here smell right. Are they all like you?” The bear’s great paw touched his thigh, a thumb straying into the slit between, sharp claw gentle in its exploration. “Like this?”
	“No...just me. I think.” Aelock’s voice caught and wavered. A shaky tingle, making his legs cave. He leaned against the bear. “I don’t know any others.”
	“You smell…” The bear inhaled, nose at the top of the shark’s head. “Just the same. Except...except now...yes, I can smell it now.” The voice rumbled, a murmur of pleasure. “Is this how your women smell when they’re excited?”
	“I...I don’t know.”
	“Well well, furless one.” The other paw slid around his waist, while that thumb...oh that thumb...it stroked, up and down, working itself inwards. There was a gentle urging backwards, guiding him to step or stumble, back towards the bed of reeds. “Have you ever been mounted?”
	“N-no.” A gasp, impossible to suppress. The prickle of the reeds against his legs. The inexorable push backwards, towards inevitability.
	“Well,” said the bear, a smooth, soothing serenity in his voice that made that tingle surge. “I will pay you even more for this…”
	Paok’s arm lifted up, bringing with it the little statue as if it weighed nothing. Aelock moved his head clear as the larger shark’s hand reached to scratch at his ear hole. Success! The statue swung close to his nose, laying on the shoulder between their heads. With a quick snip of his sharp teeth, the vine was severed and the statue lay free of its tether. Aelock exhaled, only just realising that he had been holding his breath. Now the easy part. With his teeth to grip the statue, and his tongue to manipulate it, he felt around for the little golden heads and began to push.
	“I can’t come with you.”
	“Why not?” The bear stood filling the room, strapping his leathers back on. The heavy knife with the carved blade went back on his hip. The transformation from lover to fighter was swift.
	“I’ve got a life here.”
	“What life? Selling your body? Come with me. A month sailing and you can be back with me, on the caravan on the plains. You could be a prince there.”
	“My friends…”
	“They can come with us. There’s room on the ship. I can pay the fare.”
	“I don’t...I…”
	“Little one.” The bear turned to the bed. He leaned over, the lover shining through again. He touched a kiss to Aelock’s smooth head. The smell of sex hung heavy in the small room. “You can. You know you can.”
	“I can’t. I wish…”
	“Alright, little one. I understand.” The bear straightened, and his smile glowed. “I’ll be back here, in half a year maybe. I’ll look for you then. Perhaps you’ll change your mind?”
	Aelock smiled. He pulled a skin across himself, gaining warmth he barely needed in the sweltering body heat of the room. “We’ll see.”
	The white blaze faded. Aelock blinked at the sunlight. Things felt different. And the burn of need was unbearable. He lifted his arm and gasped as he saw it. He turned his hand over, flexing his fingers. A leg too. He lifted his head to see his sex shifted one over, with the twin cocks still standing hard and eager, but now in the centre and to the side. There was only one thing to do, while the twins still slept: his fingers dived down to his crotch and, with the skill that comes from years of practice, he started to stroke at the opening, letting out a happy moan as the need found its satisfaction.
	Paok woke first, lifting his head. “What…”
	Aelock clenched his eyes shut, laying his head still against the vines, his hand laying limp against his thigh, the heat below quenched.
	“Bruna, Aelock...wake up.”
	Bruna lifted his head, groggy. “Hmm? What is...oh!”
	“What happened? How did I...Aelock?”
	Sheepishly, Aelock opened his eyes and looked up. “I couldn’t help it. I had to.”
	“Oh wow,” said Bruna. “Oh...just...wow.”
	His hand had moved, as if without a thought to guide it, to clasp around the base of his cock. A milky bead of precum dribbled from the tip.
	“Guys,” gasped Paok. Their body shook as Paok twisted their torso, attempting to sit upright.
	“I think it was the berries,” said Aelock. “It made us…”
	“Fuck I’m horny,” said Bruna. His hand started to pump, slicking on the shaft with the leaking precum.
	“Bruna, stop,” gasped Paok. “That’s not right. You can’t...not when I’m right here.”
	“I’m sorry,” panted Bruna. “I have to. I can’t…”
	And for the first time since the others had known him, Paok let out a whimper.
	Aelock watched, eyes wide, as Bruna’s fist clenched tight around his cock, in long, fast pumps up and down the shaft. The stink of male arousal grew, swimming in the air around their heads. He breathed in deep, feeling his own fire rekindle. The twins seemed distracted. His own fingers found their way to his slit again, two slender digits pressing in to thrust against the tingling need.
	“Stop it you two,” gasped Paok, all the power gone from his voice. “You can’t...Aelock, the statue...what did you do with the statue?”
	“I’m sorry. I had to. You were asleep and...I couldn’t take it. I had to.”
	“Ah!” Bruna’s head bucked back against the vines as his cock sprayed his seed in a high arc. Paok had only a moment to close his eyes and turn his head away as it came splattering down across all three. Aelock turned to press his muzzle in against Paok’s neck, panting a small, whimpering moan as his own climax hit, so soon after the first, more powerful than he expected, making his arm shake and his leg kick in spasm. Between them, Paok’s stiff torso and intensely grimacing face quivered, coated in the droplets of his own brother’s seed.
	“Aelock,” said Paok, between gritted teeth. “Where is the statue?”
	“It’s...right here,” panted Aelock, lifting his hand with the statue clasped firmly in it. “I’m going to keep hold of it for now.”
	“Switch us back.”
	“No.”
	“Aelock...switch us back. I need...I need to…”
	“Need to what, brother?” Bruna’s breath panted against Paok’s cheek. His cock fell slowly to half mast. There was a playful melody in his voice.
	“You know what I need!”
	“Don’t we need to concentrate on getting out of here, brother? We can’t just lay about while you stroke your-”
	“Bruna!”
	Aelock started to giggle. Even the bump of Paok’s head against his and the warning growl did nothing to quiet him.
	“You two...change me back. You know I need to…”
	“Say it, brother!”
	A whine, small and defeated. “I need to stroke my cock, alright? You know I need to! Aelock’s right...something in the berries.”
	“Aww, what’s the matter, brother, hmm? I thought you had self-control. Remember what you said back on shore, when you caught me that one-”
	“Bruna!”
	“That one time when I was...you know. When you told me off for, what was it, being a slave to my body?”
	“That was different. And you just did it now!”
	“That’s because I’m a slave to my body. You’re above all that. You said so yourself.”
	Paok turned his head to Aelock. “Please, Aelock. Swap the heads back. Just for a minute. Just so I can-”
	“Nope.”
	“I promise, we can switch back afterwards.”
	“Nope!”
	“At least...can you help me out, then?”
	“Ooh no.” Aelock’s giggle came again. He placed the statue down in a cradle of the vines. Paok couldn’t reach it, even if he had anything to reach it with.
	“This isn’t fair.”
	“Neither was leaving me in the middle and keeping the statue for yourself! You’re just going to have to deal with it.”
	“Please, guys.”
	“Bruna?”
	“Yes?” said Bruna, sweetness in his voice, a grin splitting his face.
	“Got anything we can gag him with? He’s being very noisy.”
	“Mmm...good thinking!”

It was impossible to stand steadily, with one leg noticeably shorter than the other, and with the confusion of having two minds controlling their limbs separately. But with careful cooperation, they managed a wobbling semblance of progress. Every step was a slow, frustrating wobble. But they eventually managed to stagger over to the wall of the temple, with only a few terrifying crashes down into the mercifully soft vines, and one or two stubbed toes against the rocks.
	“Mmmph!”
	“Yes, we hear you, brother. Shh.”
	Paok chewed on the gag. It was Aelock’s idea. Bruna thought that vines would do the job fine. But not Aelock. “He can chew through the vines,” he had said. “But this...not this.”
	So, to his constant shame, Paok’s mouth was stuffed full to stretching with one of the fruit pods. A tough, unchewable husk shaped, as Aelock was eager and amused to point out, just like a cock.
	“Mmmph!”
	“Shush now,” said Bruna. “You’ll distract us.”
	Bruna and Aelock worked together, talking through every action before they made it. The stalks of the strange, unnamed trees came down without much difficulty under the sharpness of their claws. The vines were trickier, needing the coordinated efforts of both to pull down intact lengths. The progress was slow, but gradually the makings of a sturdy ladder came together. The first was followed by a second, a little quicker. The third took half the time. And steadily, the pile of ladders grew. The day wore on, the sun passing its shadows in a slow arc across the overgrown temple floor, while Paok chewed his gag and whimpered almost with every breath, with his aching, needy cock dripping untouched and unfulfilled.
	“Tut,” said Aelock, giving the tip a flick that made Paok squeal. “This thing keeps getting in the way.”
	“Just ignore it,” said Bruna. “It’s only a little thing, after all.”
	“Mmmph!”
	“Aww, don’t be mean,” said Aelock. “It’s almost as big as yours.”
	The pair snickered. Between them both they managed to pull the last vine tight across the lashing holding the last of the stalks together. They laid the ladder atop the stack and stood back, wobbling for a moment, to inspect their work.
	“Do you think it’ll be enough?” said Aelock.
	“I’m not sure. Maybe.” Bruna looked up towards the opening. “If it’s not, we’ll have to make more tomorrow. I don’t think we’ve got enough light left to get them all set up today. Besides, I’m getting hungry.”
	“Me too.”
	“Berries?”
	“Unless you’ve found anything else, yeah. What do you say, Paok? More berries?”
	“Mmmph!”
	“Poor guy! Think we should take the gag out so he can eat?”
	“Nah.” Bruna grinned as Paok turned his pleading gaze towards him. “I figure we’ve got a shared stomach. Us two can eat, and Paok can just keep that gag right where it is.”
	“I dunno,” said Aelock. His eyes were wandering, as it had at every opportunity when they weren’t busy with work, down to Paok’s aching hardon. “Maybe he’s had enough?”
	“He’s not getting our heads swapped, if that’s what you mean.”
	“No, I mean...uh.”
	Bruna leaned his head forward to look across at Aelock. Between them Paok’s head trembled, eyes clenched shut. “What do you mean, then?”
	“Nothing, I…”
	“You want to help him out? Is that what you mean?”
	“No!”
	“You sure? You keep looking.”
	Aelock’s mouth clamped shut, his eyes wide. The heat in his muzzle grew to a visible flush.
	Bruna smiled. “Relax. I kinda always figured.”
	Aelock’s eyes widened further. “What?”
	“You know,” said Bruna, waving an arm at nothing in particular. The shared body unbalanced for a moment until Bruna shuffled his foot over to steady them. “Back at the village. There were rumours.”
	“Oh no…”
	“Hey, it’s fine. I’m not judging.” Bruna gestured with his head. “Come on, let’s go eat. You ready to walk?”
	Subdued to silence, Aelock nodded. Even Paok stayed quiet, his whimpers suspended for the moment, his eyes now open, glancing back and forth at his flanking companions.
	They lay comfortably into the embrace of the vines, shelling the husks and chewing the juicy fruit.
	“They smell of cum, you know,” said Aelock.
	“I know. So do we.”
	“That’s your fault.”
	“Mmmh.” Bruna dribbled juice down his chin, his mouth stuffed with six berries. “They’re good.”
	“That’s not what I meant.” Aelock touched a finger to the dried flakes on their tummy. Between them, Paok giggled into his gag.
	“I know what you meant.” Bruna wiped his fingers clean on the vines and laid his head back. “So, what’s it like?”
	“Hmm?”
	“Having...you know. That.” His hand gestured in the rough direction of their crotches.
	“I dunno,” said Aelock. He laid his head down just the same. The heat was starting. Bruna too seemed to be feeling it. His cock was on the way up. “What’s it like to have a cock?”
	“Hmm, good point. So...uh…”
	“Yeah. I guess we’re going to have to deal with these.” Aelock gestured in much the same way as Bruna had, but most deliberately not pointing at Paok’s straining arousal between them. He was making some very distressed whimpering noises into the drool-soaked husk gag.
	“You know,” said Bruna, a sly edge sneaking into his voice. Aelock knew it well. It always preceded some mischief. It was, in fact, the same tone he had used when suggesting that very trip out to poach pearls. Aelock lifted his head to see Bruna’s grin and the intact fruit husk waggling in his hand. “You could use this. It’s about the right shape after all.”
	“No way!”
	“Aw come on. Why not?”
	“It’s...embarrassing!”
	“Look where we are...look what we are. And what we’ve done.” Bruna tapped at the flaking cum, bringing another giggle through Paok’s whimpers. “I figure we’re a bit past embarrassment.”
	“I...guess you’re right.”
	Bruna waggled the fruit. He also waggled his eyebrows. Aelock couldn’t help but laugh.
	“Alright, fine! But you have to do something too. It can’t just be me putting on a show.”
	“I don’t think I can fit one of these inside my cock.”
	“Not that!” Aelock reached over to swat the top of Bruna’s head. “You’ve got to...hmm.” He tapped at his lip, looking over at the twins, one grinning and flushed with arousal, the other with his mouth stretched around a fat cock-shaped gag, his eyes half-closed, constantly whimpering and panting through his nose, equally aroused. “You’ve got to...make your brother cum.”
	Paok squealed, eyes wide open.
	“Oooh, I think he likes that idea,” said Aelock.
	“Don’t bet on it!” Bruna tilted his head, grinning wide. He looked drunk. He was acting drunk. “You’re on!” Definitely drunk. Otherwise there’d be no way he’d accept that, would he? Perhaps it was just the intensity of the arousal, fogging thought, clouding judgement.
	“Pass it over then.”
	“Wait. First.” Bruna scooped up one of the berries and crushed it in his palm, then smeared the juice and pulp around the head and shaft of the husk.
	“Gross.”
	“But effective,” said Bruna, passing over the slick fruit. “And if that stuff makes us horny when we eat it...I wonder what it’d do when you stuff it in there.”
	Aelock held the fruit with his fingertips. “You’re such a romantic.” He turned it over, grasping the wide base. He looked over, returning Bruna’s smile. “Alright then, get on with it. Your brother’s waiting. Unless he has any objections, that is.”
	“Mmmph!”
	“Sounded like consent to me!”
	Bruna touched his nose in close to the side of Paok’s head. “Just like when we were kids,” he whispered. “Do you remember, Puck-Puck?” His fingers, still slick from the berry juice, closed around Paok’s straining shaft. The groan rumbled out through the gag, and Paok turned his head towards Bruna’s muzzle, nuzzling it like he were a small child. The shaking quiver of his tense tummy made the whole body jolt. Aelock fumbled with the fruit, but once he had the tip of it touched against his opening, it was easy enough to slide it in. He dug his heel against the vines and shunted their whole body upwards as he spasmed, crying out, then pressing his head in against Paok’s neck, suppressing a shamefully girlish squeal.
	“Sounds like fun,” said Bruna. His head rose, just a little, to watch Aelock. His hand switched, back and forth, between his own cock and Paok’s. A little stroke here, two there, another back at the first. He soon had a rhythm going. It didn’t take much, in such a heightened state of arousal. He was soon panting just as breathlessly as Paok, and the pair writhed together in the heat of lust as beside them, pumping the fruit harder and faster, Aelock rode through his own bliss.
	Aelock’s panting gasps tickled at Paok’s ear as, with the timing of a devil, Bruna’s fingers lifted away from his brother’s slick, twitching shaft. Paok’s moan was almost one of agony as his cum fountained up from a cock untouched and unstimulated, climax ruined. Aelock’s fingers drove the husk in deep, driven cleanly over the edge by the sound of Paok’s muffled noises.
	Just a low chuckle from Bruna. Just enough to make clear how deliberate his actions were. Then, with a leisurely stroke he brought himself over the edge, his fingers squeezing around the head of his cock, cum erupting through and past them, aimed inwards to splatter in an arc across Paok’s face.
	“You’re evil,” panted Aelock, a long time later, once the stars were out of his vision and he could manage the words through his laboured breaths.
	“What?”
	“You ruined it for him.”
	“Yup!” Bruna brushed his nose against Paok’s cheek. He seemed half asleep. “How are you doing there, Puck-Puck?”
	Paok murmured, with no clear meaning.
	“I think we can ungag him now, don’t you?” Aelock nodded in response. “Okay, help me cut the vines.”
	The husk slid wet and half-chewed from Paok’s mouth, followed by a breathy little pant, then a hiss of discomfort as his aching jaw closed. His lip quivered, and one eye closed as a dribble of his own brother’s cum trickled down over the lid. “You,” he panted, “utter...bastards.”
	Bruna pecked a kiss on Paok’s cheek. It only seemed to fuel his annoyance. “Love you too, brother.”
	“I think,” said Paok, head laid back, tired and lacking fight, “that we need to sleep now.”
	“Mmm, good idea,” said Aelock. “Ready Bruna?”
	“Ready.”

It started with a gurgle, in the dark depths of the night, while the embers glowed dimly in their campfire, while strange insects and birds buzzed and called in the jungle beyond the temple. Aelock woke first, sensitive to the discomfort. He clutched his hand to their shared stomach. Whatever was going on in there, he could feel it. The body might have been under Paok’s command, and nothing but a numb expanse for Aelock, but inside seemed to be shared...and the sensations from within shared just as equally.
	And what he was feeling now was urgent.
	“Guys,” he whispered. He clutched their stomach again, fingers kneading, as a cramp dug its knife in. “Guys!” he cried, louder now, almost a shout. “Wake up! Nnng...WAKE UP!”
	The twins woke as if as one. Bruna’s hand flew first to the statue, safely at rest on a stone ledge above them, then almost as quickly joined Aelock’s on their stomach.
	“Oh,” said Bruna, in a voice of dread that said everything that need be said.
	“We need to move,” said Aelock. “Now.”
	Two days of practice died with urgency. Gone was the organised coordination of cooperation. Aelock and Bruna moved as independent beings, arms and legs flailing uselessly, while Paok rode between them, hurling curses as they blundered and fell through the jumbles of rocks and plants, pawing and scrabbling for purchase, kicking and dragging along the ground, driving their heads through snapping stems and creaking vines. And as they moved, the inevitable result of a fruit-only diet manifested. Their body barely responded as, moving as one by sheer coincidence of shared instinct, they curled into a ball, hanging onto the edge of a rock, rear hanging over a shallow pool, tail held high.
	“Oh fuck!” cried Aelock, tears in his eyes. Beside him, the twins melted into unhappy gasps. Around them, the serenity of unthinking plants and rocks ignored the agony of the merged sharks as their gut twisted and gushed liquid waste into the pool below, staining it from edge to edge.
	It was Aelock’s fingers that slipped first. Away from the rock they drew, snatching uselessly at smooth vines. In inexorable helplessness, slower than seemed possible, Bruna’s fingertips scrabbled at the smooth rock surface, skittering off the edge, and unsupported their body toppled backwards. With faint, panicked cries, the three landed with a heavy splash into the filthy stinking water flooded with their own fruit-fed waste.
	“Oh fuck,” gasped Aelock. The sloshing brown water cascaded into his mouth. His leg kicked and his arm flailed, succeeding in nothing but sending their body further into the foaming, foul cascade. The twins had greater sense, their mouths clenched shut. But as their shared air failed, each opened to gasp in turn, gaining the stench and taste that made them wretch and wail. Finally, after an animal struggle, they hauled clear of the pool, collapsing and gasping onto the vines, vomiting up dirty water and empty air.
	“You idiots,” croaked Paok. “You fucking idiots!”
	“It wasn’t...it wasn’t our fault,” cried Bruna. He wiped at his muzzle with wet fingers while Aelock spat over and over. “We...we slipped.”
	“Get the statue!”
	“No!”
	“Get the statue and put me on the outside! Now!”
	“No…” But the defiance was gone from the voice. A sickened pall lay in Bruna’s eyes.
	“I’ll go in the middle,” said Aelock, voice shaking. “You two work better together. You’re the same size. You...talk better.”
	“There,” said Paok sharply. “Go get the statue. But first...ugh…” Paok gestured with his muzzle towards the other pools. “Put us in there first and wash off this stink!”

The white light faded, and the twins felt across their body to check all was as it should be, with them flanking Aelock in the middle. The clean seawater from the pool had cleaned off the stink. For a moment, at least, all was fine.
	“Oh no.” It was Aelock.
	“What?” said Bruna. “What is it?”
	“You shouldn’t have put me in the middle.”
	“Don’t start this again,” said Paok. “We need to-”
	“No, it’s not that!”
	“Then what is it?”
	“My...my gut hurts”
	“Is that all?” said Paok. “I had to deal with that the whole time I was in the middle!”
	“Why didn’t you say anything? Oh no, this is not good. Not good at all.”
	“What’s going on?” said Bruna.
	“What happens once a month to women, huh?” hissed Aelock.
	“Oh,” said Bruna. “Oh!”
	“Yes,” said Aelock. “Oh is right.”
	Paok sighed. “Great. And I take it this happens to you.”
	“Of course it does.”
	“And it happened to you about a month ago.”
	“Why do you think I always go hunting on my own once every month? Yes it happened a month ago! And now...well, I was expecting to be back home before this!”
	“So, uh.” Bruna tugged at some vines, for lack of anything better to do. His gaze darted around, and he chewed his lip between words. “What, uh...what do we do? About...that?”
	“We don’t do anything. I’m going to have to find something to...oh fuck, this is not good...something to put in there...to soak up-”
	“Stop!” cried Bruna. He clasped his hand over his ear, but could do nothing to cover the other. “Stop talking! I don’t want to hear it.”
	“Fine! But we need to switch places.”
	“No way,” said Paok. “I’m not going in the middle now. I’m not going to be the one who has to feel all of that.”
	“Then how else am I suppose to deal with this, huh? With no hands?”
	“Aelock...calm down.” Bruna tried to touch Aelock’s cheek, but he wrenched his head away.
	“No! I’m not going to calm down! This is all fucked up! We’re...we’re a freak! Not that I wasn’t one already! I was...I was so good at keeping it secret. Then this had to go and spoil it all and now you two know and...and...you’re always going to know, even if we get out of here! Nothing’s going to-”
	Bruna’s hand on Aelock’s cheek guided his muzzle where it needed to be. Bruna’s lips did the rest. They met Aelock’s lips in a firm press, silencing Aelock’s voice into a surprised, strangled squeak. Paok had the decency to stay quiet. But he stared, wide-eyed and disbelieving.
	Bruna parted the kiss. “There,” he said sharply. “Now you’ve got something on me. So you can shut up, right?”
	“I...what…”
	“Paok, your turn.”
	“What?”
	“Kiss him.”
	“What? Why?”
	“Damn it Paok, just do it. Would you stop thinking for just one minute? Kiss him!”
	“Wait a minute guys, I…” Paok caught Aelock mid-sentence, his lips closing, teeth clinking, tongues meshing. Aelock exhaled into the kiss, his eyes closing, the tension melting from his muscles.
	“Whoah,” breathed Bruna. “That’s...uh...that’s enough now.”
	Gently, Paok parted from the kiss, hesitant and gentle. Aelock stared at his blurred muzzle, subdued, stunned.
	“Well,” said Paok. “That did the trick. Are we all calm now?”
	Aelock nodded.
	“Well...kinda.” Bruna flicked his finger against his cock, now at half mast. He looked at the other two, at Paok’s raised eyebrow. “What? That was hot!”
	“Guys, I don’t think mmph!”
	Paok’s mouth silenced Aelock once more, a deep kiss with a thrusting tongue that invaded, giving Aelock no room to struggle free. Paok’s hand slid across their stomach and closed around Bruna’s cock, squeezing and kneading his twin to almost instant full hardness, with the skill and practice that comes from years of playing with his own identical body. Bruna panted sharply. And as Paok let the kiss end, Bruna reached up to roughly pull Aelock’s mouth to his, as his own hand dropped and slid across to wrap around Paok’s cock. Back and forth the kisses went, getting more breathless and heated with each turn. As each twin lost their breath, or felt the ache set into their jaw and tongue, they passed their captive friend back to the other to continue. Aelock tried to plead, half-heartedly. He was tired, he was sore. But every time he tasted the twins’ breath he was back to deep, needy kissing. While, below the crossed arms of the twins, the two twin cocks throbbed slick and eager in the brothers’ hands. And just as they knew their own cocks, so too they knew each others, and as if pre-planned they hit their peak simultaneously. Paok broke his kiss with Aelock, and as he turned to Bruna’s side the twin streams of shark cum gushed up towards his face. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth and...just basked in it.
	“Shall we…” Bruna panted, licking his dry lips. His tongue felt like sand. “Shall we...do you?”
	Aelock shook his head. He licked his lips, anything but dry, tasting mingled sticky seed. “N-no...I’d best do it. After we swap. You don’t want to do it right now, not while...you know...it’s happening. It’ll be all...you know...icky. And I don’t think you guys would want-”
	“Shut up,” said Paok, not unkindly. “Just...shut up.” His fingers, lubricated with his brother’s seed, slid across and caressed along Aelock’s slit. Aelock responded with a gasp, and as he looked across, one side to the other, he saw Paok’s determined scowl and Bruna’s playful grin, as he too tickled his sticky fingers across to join his brother in stroking their friend’s feminine sex.
	“Guys,” gasped Aelock. “Are...are you sure?”
	“We know how to please women,” said Paok. “At least, I do.”
	“Hey!” said Bruna.
	“My brother hasn’t had much practice.”
	“More than you!”
	“Guys,” whispered Aelock, a shake in his voice, a tremble in their torso. “S-shut up...just...oh fuck...j-just keep doing…w-whatever that is you’re doing.”
	“Whatever you say,” said Bruna. And together, inspired by the same moment and working with such similar minds, they leaned in to nuzzle at both sides of Aelock’s muzzle, smearing their seed into a wet sheen, and gently kissing at Aelock’s skin, as their fingers delved and thrusted and stroked and flicked, wet with their sticky seed and wetting further with the stickiness from within, uncaring as they pressed deeper and deeper, bringing Aelock first to whimpers, then pants, then mewling gasps as he shuddered helpless between them in the hot glow of orgasmic bliss.
	“I think we did a good job, Puck-Puck.”
	“I guess we did.”
	They lay their heads back into the vines. Aelock was already half asleep, murmuring under his breath, a smile painted onto his slender muzzle. Bruna reached over to stroke his tummy.
	“We’re gonna have a lot to figure out when we get home,” said Bruna. “After all this.”
	“Yeah. But we can worry about that then. For now,” Paok pointed listlessly over to the stack of ladders prepared the previous day. “We’ve got to get them up.”
	“No,” said Aelock, sounding half asleep. “Now, we need to sort out my...problem. Can we switch places for a minute? I think I can work something out with my loincloth, if we can find it.”
	“Sure,” said Bruna. “The statue’s over there. It won’t take a minute. Paok, ready to move?”
	“I suppose.”

Though in the aftermath none of them could be quite sure of what had happened, that didn’t stop the accusations from flying.
	“You’re the one who knocked it off, idiot!” said Paok, voice muffled by the clump of vines his muzzle was stuck into, upside-down.”
	“I did not!” Bruna’s voice, a few tails distant, called out from a cleft between two rocks, down beside the murky, shit-stained pool. “You shouldn’t have tried to snatch for it! I would have caught it!”
	“Guys,” said Aelock, “can we concentrate on the important thing, please? Can we get my nose out of our butt?”
	“Can’t you...roll away, somehow?”
	“I’ve tried!”
	“Use your tongue? To push away?”
	“And stick it in our butt in the process? No way!”
	“You may have no choice.” Paok grunted for a moment. “My arm is stuck, somewhere in the rocks over there.”
	“And mine’s in the vines,” said Bruna.”
	“And who knows where our legs are.”
	“How did this happen?” whimpered Aelock. “Ugh...it stinks here. I can’t get away from it!”
	“Well,” said Paok. “I guess...I guess when the statue broke...so did we.”
	“This is awful. What are we going to do now?”
	“Well, at least we’re still alive. Maybe we can...put ourselves back together? Somehow?”
	“Oh no.”
	“What? Bruna...what?”
	“Something...no! Something’s crawling on my cock!”
	“What?”
	“Something tickly! Oh no...hehe...oh no! It’s an insect or something! Hehehe-oh please make it stop!”
	“Where is it? Where is your…” Paok coughed. “Your cock.”
	“I don’t know! Somewhere where there’s a tickly insect! Eeeehehe!”
	“Don’t worry,” said Paok, sounding very worried. “I’ll think of something. There’s a few bits of the statue here. They look like...like they slot back together. Maybe I can fix it. If I can...nnng…” he stretched his tongue, reaching, probing, tickling at the fragment of gold laying nearby. “This...this might take a while.”
	Bruna’s helpless laughter swelled through the broken temple. Soon, Aelock began to laugh just the same.
	“They’ve reached me too! I think...ah! I t-think it’s...ants or something. Oh no...oh no they’re crawling all over it! Paok! Hurry!”
	And as the sun passed over the edge of the hole in the temple’s roof, and as the shadows dripped across the vines and leaves and broken stone, and across the scattered fragments of golden statue, and the equally scattered pieces of living flesh, severed and divided in neat lines at every joint, dropped and rolled where they fell, caught into crevices and knots in the jumbled, overgrown floor.
	“I think,” said Paok, out of breath, his tongue having nudged a golden fragment barely a finger’s length towards the next part. “That...we’re going to be here a long, long time.”