Nature's Guardian
 
** Contains: Oral Vore, Digestion, Fatal, Masturbation, Rape, Violence **
 
 At first, he was.
 
 He didn't yet know that he was, only that there were things around him.
 
 Mostly they were things that stayed still, or moved only back and forth in a rhythm, all at once, as if they all were touched by some unseen force.
 
 But there were also things that moved errantly, not with the rhythm of the things that were mostly still. Small things that moved up high, between the tall things that didn't move. Other small things moved on the ground, appearing and disappearing between yet more unmoving things.
 
 He was more akin to these moving things, he realised. And as he did, he felt something. A distant feeling. Something he hadn't felt before. It felt... Good.
 
 He stood up, only then realising that he had been laying down. He turned his head, for that was where his eyes were, and those were what he saw with.
 
 And he realised that he knew those things not because he had seen them, but because the knowledge was within him.
 
 The feeling came again. It was acceptance, he realised. Something was happy for him. Something approved that he was realising all these things.
 
 Gaia. The name came to him. Not from inside, but from... Gaia. His mother?
 
 He knew not what that meant. But he did know that he liked Gaia. And the feeling was there. Gaia liked to be liked.
 
 Hesitantly he took his first step, then another. He had never walked before. But a knowledge came to him, a certainty that he could walk well, and run, and jump. All those things he could do, and do well.
 
 But first... First he had to sleep. He wasn't yet ready, he felt.
 
 Slowly he laid back down, and fell asleep.
 
-----
 
 When he next woke, he was aware.
 
 Before, he hadn't truly been a person. But now he was a being of his own. Gaia must have finished making him, he thought. And then he realised that his mother had a name, but he did not.
 
 "Jakarl" came a whisper to his mind. That must be his name, one given to him by Gaia. He was Jakarl.
 
 He stood up, looking around. He was in the forest, the same area where he had first woken up on. And he realised he was large.
 
 The animals he had seen before had all been far smaller than him, far, far smaller. Turning his head as far back as he could, at many angles, he looked at himself. At the dark blue pattern of lines that ran along his back, the green fur on his upper side and the brown colour of his belly.
 
 The animals had all been grey or brown, not nearly as colourful as he was. He was different from them, not just because of his size, but because of his colour as well.
 
 But that brought to his mind a question. There had been many of the small grey and brown creatures. Some were different from each other, but many were almost exactly alike. Were there more beings like him?
 
 A feeling came to him, one of regret. Did that mean a no?
 
 Apparently so, for while the regret was still there, a feeling of agreement came to him.
 
 Then they both faded away, leaving him alone.
 
-----
 
 For the rest of the day Jakarl wandered around the forest. He learned that he could change the colour of his blue stripes, to somewhat fit his surroundings, or to just look different from what he had a moment ago.
 
 He learned that now that he was moving, the animals all seemed to fear him. But he could move quietly, keeping his long claws off of the ground, stopping them from making sound as they hit roots, branches and the occasional rock. The pads at the bottom of his feet were soft, soundless against even the hardest of surfaces.
 
 In curiosity, he soundlessly moved close to some of the animals he saw. They always ran the moment they finally realised his presence, but some he caught, pressing down on them with his paws so that they couldn't move.
 
 He knew that his claws would hurt the animals, so he didn't touch the creatures with those. He knew that his teeth would hurt the animals too, so he didn't use those either. So it was hard for him to study the beings he held captive, hard and slow.
 
 But he kept at it. He caught, observed and let go many creatures, and often their names came to his mind.
 
 This small, grey, long tailed being was a mouse. That only slightly larger, reddish brown being was a squirrel. This somewhat larger, strong legged being was a hare. That being, not furred like he was, and without legs, was a snake.
 
 The snake was the first creature that hurt him. The others had tried to, he realised, but his fur and skin were too tough, tougher than that of other animals, and their bites failed to make a mark.
 
 But the snake had two sharp fangs which slid through his fur and pierced the skin on his paw, making him feel pain for the first time.
 
 He let the snake go, and it vanished somewhere as he studied the wound. The red liquid that he could see matting his fur was blood, he realised. It shouldn't be outside of his skin. But barely had he thought that, when he came to see that no more blood was coming out. Licking the blood away from his paw, Jakarl saw that under the fur, now spread away from where the snake had bit him, there was nothing but unhurt skin.
 
 He had never been hurt before, but he knew that animals didn't heal that fast. Was this a gift from Gaia?
 
 Yes, the feeling of approval came to him. Gaia was pleased that he liked her gift. And yet, an admonishment came at the same time. He shouldn't get himself hurt.
 
 After that, he was more careful with his studies, even as he found larger animals.
 
 Surprisingly, some of those did not run from him. A white and reddish, four legged being with a fluffy tail showed no signs of fear as he approached it. A fox, the name came to him.
 
 The fox seemed as curious about him as he was about it. It circled him, walked between his legs, sniffed at everything about him. He likewise studied the fox, both its appearance and its scent.
 
 The fox was a female, he realised, just as he was a male. A thought came to him, a thought about how that difference would be important at an another time of the year. But right now, it made no difference. What was important to him was that he had a friend.
 
-----
 
 He kept following the fox as it grew bored of studying him, watching how it went about the forest, much like he had. But when the fox found a mouse, he realised that the fox wasn't interested in studying the small animals before then letting them go.
 
 In a flash the foxes jaws were upon the mouse, a crunch audible as bones cracked. For a second the fox dangled the now bloodied critter between its teeth, and then with a toss of its head sent the mouse down its throat.
 
 Making Jakarl realise that he had witnessed predation, a part of the food chain. And further, making him realise why most animals were afraid of him. He was much like the fox in form, just much larger.
 
 And that he had never eaten anything. That feeling that had been growing inside of him had to be hunger. But a mouse wouldn't fill him. Even the fox, small as it was, would need more than one mouse today. He needed something larger.
 
 For a moment a temptation grew in him. There was a meal for him, right there. And it wasn't even trying to run!
 
 But then, he knew he couldn't eat the fox. He liked the fox. He probably liked all foxes.
 
 So he left, leaving the fox on its own, to continue to live as it had before he had first seen it.
 
 He found nothing to eat before the night came, and he simply slept where he had been at the time. There were no animals that might hunt him, he felt, and even if rain fell, his fur would keep the worst of it away.
 
-----
 
 As sun rose he woke up. Now the hunger was clear.
 
 He spent the morning looking for prey, finding nothing of sufficient size to be worth the effort to catch.
 
 Then, he came upon the edge of the forest. Looking around at the open space, he saw many things which he had never seen before.
 
 On a straight line of dark stone large many coloured things moved at tremendous speed. Occasionally even larger and louder things moved among the herd.
 
 On the side closer to him, all the things were going right, while behind them, on the opposite edge of the stone path, the things were moving to the left.
 
 None of the things looked like prey, the knowledge he had been born with told him. None of the things looked like anything that the knowledge in him knew.
 
 Carefully, he started traveling along the edge of the forest, far enough inside the forest that none of the things would see him.
 
 After some time, a smaller path branched from the larger one, and curiously, some of the herd chose to travel down that path.
 
 Following the new trail, he came upon more forks, each smaller than the last one. Until one fork left the path, not covered in stone, but in clay, sand and gravel.
 
 Following this path, on which none of the large herd animals moved, he came upon a large... something.
 
 It was red, a thing of straight lines and straight vertical sides, as large as a hill. But it was no hill, and upon leaving the cover of the forest and approaching the thing, he saw through a crack between the pieces it was made out of.
 
 The thing was hollow, and he could just barely see one of the large herd animals inside, this one grey. It wasn't moving. Not even breathing, from what he could see.
 
 The large red thing didn't seem very sturdy, and he might have been able to force himself in, but he was afraid that the grey animal inside might be resting, and could react angrily if he intruded upon its den. For that was what the red thing had to be.
 
 Moving around the red thing, he saw some way away an even larger white thing of similar appearance. And in front of that, there was one of the animals, a blue one.
 
 But it didn't seem to notice him. Deciding that his need to know more was greater than the possible danger, he approached the blue thing.
 
 It did nothing. Even when he was right in front of it, the thing stayed still, as if dead. Could he eat it?
 
 Touching it with his claws, he found it hard shelled. And there was something equally hard that he couldn't really see in patches near its upper side.
 
 Through these unseen patches he could see that this thing was hollow too. And that what was inside looked nothing like anything that should be inside an animal.
 
 The large things weren't animals, he realised. But how and why did they move then? They clearly weren't plants moving in the wind either.
 
 Wondering about it, he experimentally struck the thing hard at its side, leaving a crumbled mark on its side. And jumped, for the thing let out an undulating wail.
 
 Alarmed, he ran back to the cover of the forest. Only then did he look back, to see the blue thing still where it had been.
 
 But now there was something else near it. A tall animal, walking on its rear legs, like a bird. It circled around the blue thing, expressing alarm at the mark he had left on it.
 
 Were the large non-animals dens for these animals? He didn't know, but the knowledge in his mind told him that the tall animals were dangerous. They were humans, animals that were dangerous to all other animals.
 
 He should avoid them, an instinct told him, though at the same time, he felt drawn to them...
 
-----
 
 He failed to find anything to eat. The entirety of the rest of the day he saw nothing larger than another fox, this one a male.
 
 Like with the first fox, this one wasn't afraid of him. Also like with the first fox, he left the animal to continue with whatever it had been doing.
 
 The next morning his hunger was immense. Even Gaia seemed to worry about it, for he felt an urgency to act from her.
 
 Yet, as he resumed his hunt, he again kept finding nothing. This seemed to be a matter of concern for Gaia too. The forest just seemed devoid of any animals larger than the fox.
 
 Pondering about it, he barely paid attention to the distant sound. But it echoed past him again, the harsh crack, muffled by distance but seeming like it must have been loud where it originated.
 
 Curious, he moved towards the source of the sound. He had a pretty good idea where it had come from, but after a while he had to admit that he had likely missed the source.
 
 Then it came again, from much closer. Quickly he moved towards the direction the sound had come from, even as the crack echoed again, for the fourth time.
 
 And then he saw them. Humans.
 
 They were standing by two bloodied animals, much like foxes but larger. Wolves, the knowledge in him said.
 
 And the humans were talking. He had never heard speech before. But the words were familiar to him regardless, the voices alien but understandable.
 
 "Yep, you got it straight through the neck. Nice one" the first human said, kicking one of the dead wolves.
 
 "Thanks. Yours wasn't bad either, for a shot from longer range" the second said, using his left foot to nudge the other wolf around, showing where it had an ugly wound at its side.
 
 "Yep" the first one responded, now inspecting something made of wood and what appeared to be a material similar to the one that the large non-animals were made of. "Well, we'd better head back. Carolyn said she'd have the food ready by four."
 
 "Fine by me. I had hoped for a bigger kill, but you get what you get" the second said, pointing a flat piece of the non-animal material at the dead wolves. The item made a strange sound, after which the human grunted in what seemed like satisfaction.
 
 Then the two humans turned around and started walking away, towards where he had inspected the non-animal thing yesterday.
 
 And just leaving the dead wolves lying there.
 
 To him, it seemed pointless. He had understood what the two humans had been saying, and though the meaning of some of the words was unknown to him, and though he had no idea who this Carolyn was, there seemed to be no real purpose for the actions of the two humans.
 
 But that wasn't important. What was important was the wave of anger from Gaia, a red mist descending over his mind.
 
 A judgement had been made, Jakarl realised. And Gaia had given him a task.
 
 It would have been wiser to stalk the two humans, he later realised. But with the wave of anger over him, he couldn't help charging straight at them, heedless of the sound his paws and claws made as they impacted the ground, even as he felt his stripes change their color to crimson.
 
 The humans heard him coming. Both of them appeared surprised when they saw him, then terrified. One dropped the thing it had pointed at the wolves, leaping aside to take cover behind a tree.
 
 The other stood its ground, raising the thing it had been inspecting, pointing it at him.
 
 And for the fifth the the loud crack sounded, and he felt pain. A line of agony down the right side of his head, across the length of his neck, and finally an icy pain at his right shoulder, something impacting the shoulder blade hard, throwing him off balance for few steps.
 
 But though the pain was sickening, he didn't stop. He ran straight at the man who had stood still.
 
 His lower jaws impacted the top of the humans head before his chest hit the humans. The impact robbed him of his speed, the momentum transferred to the human who flew away, first bouncing once, then rolling to a stop.
 
 Turning around, Jakarl watched the other human rising a thing similar to what the other human had pointed at him. He still didn't know what those things were, but they seemed capable of doing something to hurt him.
 
 Even as the human pointed the long piece of wood and something else at him, he moved, stepping sideways and dropping low. A crack sounded, and he could hear something fly over him, moving at incredible speed while it gave a shrill cry.
 
 Standing back up, he quickly leaped towards the human, but stopped before touching it.
 
 The human had dropped the dangerous thing, fallen to its knees and covered its face with its front limbs.
 
 He felt the urge to act, to disembowel the human before it could fight back, but stopped. For the moment, the human seemed less dangerous, even harmless, despite Gaia's urging for him to go for the kill.
 
 No. As it was, he allowed curiosity to overcome his urge to kill, though he remained cautious. Using his paw, he sent the thing the human had used to try to kill him flying away, far away, to land somewhere behind the undergrowth.
 
 The human had moved its limbs away from its face, watching how the thing flew away. "My rifle" it spoke quietly, before turning to look back at him.
 
 It was scared, obviously. But unlike prey, which should have either tried to flee or to fight back, it seemed to be observing him just as he observed it. Interesting.
 
 He licked his tongue across the right side of his head and neck, tasting blood. But the skin beneath the fur was again already healing, as was his shoulder by how it felt.
 
 And all the while he watched the human, observing what it looked and smelt like and how it moved.
 
 "What are you waiting for?" the human asked after a while.
 
 He would have liked to speak back, to ask questions he wanted and answer for, but he could not. He did not have the ability to talk, though he could understand speech well.
 
 Frustrating. He would have to find a way to overcome the limitation, he realised. But that would take too long for now.
 
 So he merely turned around, walking to the other human and sending the 'rifle' it had carried flying away too.
 
 "Are you intelligent enough to know that those things are what could harm you?" the human behind him asked, and turning his head back, he saw that it had stood up, looking still scared, but now having something else on its expression too.
 
 Something that turned to surprise and a different sort of fear, as he reached to his knowledge and found something, something that was connected to his ability to understand speech. And he nodded.
 
 "Was that a yes?" the human asked, seeming unbelieving.
 
 He nodded again in answer, then turned back to the other human, still lying where he had stopped after the collision.
 
 The humans didn't have much fur of their own, it seemed, so they had something covering their bodies that was made of hairs or fibres of some kind. Carefully he extended a claw and reached it under the covering, then pulled up, cutting apart part of the fake fur. He repeated the process a few times, until the covering on the unconscious humans upper body fell away in pieces.
 
 There indeed wasn't much fur on the human. Aside from the top of its head, it had a thin covering on its upper chest and some under the point where its front limbs attached to the body. The rest of the skin had only the sparsest of fur covering, short thin hairs that must have done next to nothing to keep the human warm.
 
 Strange creatures, he thought, even as he sensed the other human walk beside him, stopping to look down on the one on the ground.
 
 "What are you doing to him?" the standing human asked, seeming nervous.
 
 He answered by cutting away the covering on the rest of the humans body, leaving it bare skinned on the ground.
 
 There was no more hair on its legs than there was else where, though there was a patch of hair surrounding its genitals. The genitals were markedly different from his or of any other animal in the forest, he noted, but this was clearly a male. Carefully he turned the human around, looking at its back and finding nothing interesting.
 
 All the while as he worked, the other human stood by, watching but doing nothing other than gasping now and then when he moved to touch the unconscious human, its expression between curious and scared.
 
 He would much have liked to ask what it was thinking about what he was doing. As it was, the best he could do in communication was to pick a shred of the other humans covering in his teeth, look pointedly at the standing human, and toss the piece away.
 
 The standing human looked at him bluntly, apparently not understanding. He repeated the motion with another piece, reaching with one claw towards the humans coverings at the same time.
 
 "You want me to take off my clothes?" the human asked, looking surprised.
 
 He nodded, assuming that "clothes" were what the humans called the covering.
 
 "Why?" the human asked, stepping back a few steps.
 
 He had no way to answer that, so he merely took a long step forward, easily catching up to the humans much shorter steps. Then he reached at it with a claw, making a cutting motion.
 
 The human seemed to understand. Slowly it took off the clothes, at points first pushing what looked like pieces of coloured bone through holes in the clothes, at another pulling down on a piece of the material in the rifles and non-animals to part in two a piece of the clothes. Then it pulled away piece after piece, a total of eight of them in various sizes, shapes and colours.
 
 This human was a male too. It was also, as he had already noted, slightly smaller than the other one, but otherwise almost the same. The only real differences were in the faces, and those were very small too. Even their hair of a similar shade of brown, while the first human he had seen yesterday had had a yellowish hair.
 
 The standing human was shivering, he noticed. Clearly the humans needed their coverings, even if the weather was as warm as it now was in his opinion.
 
 For a moment he just stood there, watching the human shiver, prolonging the inevitable.
 
 It was much the same as with the foxes. He actually liked the humans. True, they had hurt him, and had killed the wolves for no reason, but he found the humans interesting.
 
 But he could feel Gaia getting impatient. She wanted the humans dead. A punishment for killing the wolves? No, a punishment for killing them without a need to. For wasting natures resources. And for likely having done so before, as the emptiness of the forest implied.
 
 And with the excitement of the battle over, his hunger had started rising again. A hunger he hadn't been able to satisfy, mostly likely in part due to these two humans.
 
 Best to just get it over with, then.
 
 In one quick motion he stepped forward, his jaws opening wide and falling on the human, the entirety of its upper body in his mouth before the human could even properly react. The gap in his teeth at the front of his jaws was just wide enough to keep the human from being pierced.
 
 And even after it reacted, its attempt to fight back was pitiful. It his him with its front limbs, causing no injury before stopping as it cut itself on his teeth.
 
 And as he carefully lifted it off the ground, its legs started kicking, hitting mostly nothing but air, only few times striking his chest and front legs, again doing no real harm. Sad, really, the way the human could only scream at him in terror.
 
 Lifting his head up, he allowed the human to fall in, its head entering his throat. He had never eaten before, but Gaia had given him the instincts and understanding on how it worked.
 
 His teeth weren't like those of a fox or a wolf, meant for tearing apart a prey to be eaten in pieces. His teeth were only for holding the prey firmly, his jaws having little strength for a bite anyway.
 
 And like the human now starting to slide down his gullet was finding out, he was made for swallowing prey whole, somewhat like reptiles were.
 
 Reflexively he swallowed, for the first time in his life, and the human slid down faster, now only its rear legs from knee down outside his jaws. He had paid little attention to the humans taste, he realised.
 
 Now his tongue started to snake across the parts of the human in his mouth, finding little taste except where the human had cut itself in his teeth, and between the humans legs, around its genitals.
 
 The human reacted with renewed but futile vigour as his tongue explored that area, coiling around the testes, licking across the penis, even parting the skin covering that member. The taste was strongest there, under that fold of skin. The human equivalent of a sheath?
 
 The taste was interesting. Potent, musky and slightly sour, but also somewhat salty. And then there was an explosion of flavour, less musky and sour but saltier and fuller, as with a cry from the human its penis gave forth a burst of sticky, warm liquid.
 
 Did the human ejaculate? Why? Had it mistaken his mouth for a female? That didn't seem likely. Had his tongue then triggered a reaction of some kind?
 
 Uncertain, but feeling that the human had found the result not entirely comfortable, he grudgingly gave another swallow, the humans genitals sliding away from his tongue and into his gullet. A few more gulps sent the rest of the human down, where he could feel the humans head reaching his stomach.
 
 The sphincter stopped the human for only a second, before allowing the pressure from his gullet to send the meal inside the stomach. Steadily the human kept entering the muscular organ, which soon had to start stretching to allow for more to enter.
 
 Having his stomach full felt satisfying, Jakarl realised. And his hunger started subsiding too, his body knowing that it had been fed, that nourishment was soon on its way.
 
 His belly sagging slightly, he turned towards the other human. It was still laying on the ground, but had started moving, fighting its way back to consciousness.
 
 Gently he took its feet in his jaws, avoiding having his teeth cut the naked skin as much as he could. He was eating the humans, sure. And that would obviously kill them, eventually. But there was no need for him to inflict pain or suffering to these humans. They could live what was left of their lives in the warmth and comfort of his soft stomach, gently falling asleep.
 
 The human barely reacted as he kept taking it in, swallowing as he kept pushing his lower jaw further under it. He was tempted to subject this one to similar tasting as he had the other one, but decided not to. He had already done enough to this one.
 
 Soon both humans were together inside his belly, the first one pushing and kicking at the inner lining of his stomach. It wasn't any more successful in harming him from inside than it had been from the outside. Indeed, what the human kept doing felt somewhat good, and the other one was starting to move more too. And Gaia seemed pleased, further adding to his enjoyment.
 
 And with his stomach weighing heavily, sagging deep, he felt very pleased indeed. Sure, he could have eaten even more, he felt, but there had only been these two humans around. And even had there been more, he might have chosen not to eat those who hadn't angered Gaia.
 
 Then he remembered the wolves. Walking over to them, a task that actually felt slightly uncomfortable, he found them where they had been left. Both still very dead. He looked them over quickly, finding that the pair had been a male and a female, likely planning to start a new pack.
 
 Had they been living he wouldn't have ever thought about eating them, but now there was no point in letting them rot. One by one, he swallowed them down, the humans struggles reinvigorating as they found their space now occupied by two furry creatures.
 
 And Jakarl felt full. Truly full, likely unable to eat more without causing himself harm. But it was worth it, he thought, even if moving was now cumbersome. Settling down at the base of a pine, he planned to rest.
 
 But the humans did not stop moving, even after he belched out some of their air. And they were putting pressure on his sheath, massaging it continuously, causing a feeling of pressure to build between his legs, wanting release.
 
 Sitting up, he moved himself so that his back rested against the pine, not sitting on his haunches but laying on his back, his tail ahead of him as he looked down at his jiggling, massively bulging belly.
 
 Craning his neck outwards, to see under his belly, he found what he had expected to see. His own male-hood, erect and exposed.
 
 It made no sense, he thought, for it was not a mating time for any species he might be compatible with, and there were no receptive females nearby in any case.
 
 But perhaps, as with the human, this was a reaction to stimulation? He did have to admit that the humans movements, though growing steadily weaker, did feel good against his penis. Perhaps, as with the human, his tongue might provide additional sensation?
 
 Snaking the long, prehensile length of flesh out, he coiled it around the exposed part of his shaft, just behind the barbed tip of the penis. And he started experimenting.
 
 Squeezing, moving the tongue along the length of the member, tickling the tip... They all provided their own sensation of pleasure. He could feel Gaia's puzzlement, the unvoiced but felt question about the logic behind what he was doing.
 
 He had no answer to give. Doing this simply felt good. And soon, with a loud whine, he released his seed over his tail, to mix with the saliva that had pooled down on the tail and the ground, dripping along his tongue.
 
 He tasted much like the human had, he found. And the feeling of pressure had been relieved from between his legs. Another belch helped clear some of the pressure from within his stomach, and also helped to put an end to the admittedly enjoyable struggles of the humans.
 
 Moving some distance away, under another tree, he settled down to sleep.
 
-----
 
 He slept long to the next day, never knowing about most of what happened as he dreamed happily of devouring more humans with rifles.
 
 Carolyn, waiting even as the food she had prepared went stone cold, eventually called her neighbours to ask about her husband and his friend, both having gone "hunting" that morning but not having come back when they should have, and not answering their phones either.
 
 Next morning, both men still not having been seen or heard of, a group went looking for them. It took them most of the day, but eventually they came upon two piles of clothing, one torn to pieces, the other undamaged. Carolyn recognised the torn clothing as the set she had prepared for her husband last morning. His phone was still in one of the pockets.
 
 A discarded phone was also found close, that of her husbands friend, meaning the other set of clothes had likely been his.
 
 But even after searching the surroundings carefully, the only other thing that was found was a rifle, with an empty casing loaded in.
 
 There was no blood, no bones, no severed body parts, no bodies. The men had just disappeared, leaving their clothes behind.
 
 The following weeks saw many rumors emerge among the local population. There were those who spoke of a ghost, others of the Bigfoot, some of aliens. Yet another mentioned the rapture, or an insurance fraud, or a cult. And one woman spoke of the mother nature having been angered to action, having given birth to a terrible man-eating monster in the woods.
 
 Jakarl knew not of the rumors. He eventually woke up, his belly much smaller and firmer now and his hunger sated for days, and set towards the other side of the forest, to see if any prey might be found there.
 
 As for Carolyn, she claimed her husbands life insurance, and though she never told it to anyone, was glad to be rid of her abusive husband and his butt pinching friend.