“Empty” by Faora Meridian [18+]

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Today I'm reading an adult story for mature listeners.

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If that's not your cup of tea,

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or if there are youngsters listening,

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you can skip this one and

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I'll have a new story for you next time.

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You’re listening to The Voice of Dog. I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

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and Today’s story is

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“Empty” by Faora Meridian,

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who had this story first published in FANG #8 through

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Furplanet,

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and you can find more of his stories on SoFurry and FurAffinity,

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as well as in several more furry anthologies.

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“Empty”

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by Faora Meridian Copy and paste your story here:

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I never saw him enter.

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I felt him, of course, as he arrived in the middle of the night.

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The hot breath on the back of my neck.

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A soft lick to the tip of one ear.

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Gentle strokes through my fur.

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Each was but a memory now

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suddenly given new life.

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I felt them all, just as surely as I had

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years ago. Decades ago.

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Way back when… way back before.

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I didn’t question his presence.

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It was all just a dream.

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I couldn’t move, and why would I want to?

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I knew who was there.

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Maybe I even knew why.

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Maybe I was sure.

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Maybe I wanted to be sure.

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My body – my heart, my soul –

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had been empty for so long.

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Anything at all to fill that void was welcome,

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for however short a time.

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His body pressed up against mine.

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He moulded himself to me,

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just like he used to.

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I couldn’t open my eyes,

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but I didn’t need them.

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I could feel his warmth at my back.

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I remembered the feel of his arms around me;

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black-furred fingers through what had once been

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russet-red pelt so long ago.

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Everything tingled under his touch.

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Everything from the tip of my tail to that

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softly licked ear

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hummed just with his presence.

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I didn’t have to speak.

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I didn’t have to ask.

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I didn’t even have to understand.

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Motions, long lost even from memory

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rushed suddenly back,

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beckoned by his touch.

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Old bones that hadn’t shifted so in years

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worked muscles that ached

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day in and day out.

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But his touch carried a warmth that

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sank beneath the fur, beneath the flesh,

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through the tired sinew and muscle and bone

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like a reminder of times long gone past.

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The heat carried deeper and I

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trembled. Fingers clenched at a pillow as

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claws unsheathed

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with a want unfelt for an age and a half.

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The dream lifted my paralysis, but his presence remained a constant warmth behind me.

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I could move, and so I did.

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Oh, I moved. I squirmed. I bore back.

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I felt more of my emptiness filled like nothing I’d experienced in so, so long.

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Full wakefulness eluded me still,

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even as my energy returned.

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An arm lifted to wrap around my middle, and I clutched it fiercely.

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Even if it was just a dream,

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I wasn’t about to let go.

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He was here. He was home.

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Everything was right in a way it hadn’t been in too long.

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He turned me on my back,

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and I could see him again.

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Angular lupine face.

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Smugly perked eyebrow.

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Ratty, torn left ear.

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Rugged, toothy smile.

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I reached up with a smile of my own to cup his cheek.

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Black paw-fur shone as the moonlight crawled across it,

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a lost lustre restored.

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He placed his paw over mine,

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his other on my chest.

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I wondered if he felt my old heart race the same way it had when we had first met.

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I wondered if he felt it skip a beat – or was it two? –

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when I felt him, as sure as ever,

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press beneath my tail.

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I knew he’d loved it.

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That twitch;

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that tremble of broken anticipation as he slipped inside me.

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He’d loved to see it written across my face.

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Could he see it there,

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sheathed in the full moon’s silver glow?

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How like a wolf to come hunt me under its light.

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How like him to smile down at me while I shook for and against and around him.

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I didn’t question his malehood as it spread me open for the first time in

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too long. I didn’t think about the lack of pain or discomfort.

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It was all just a dream.

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It was all memories, tempered by time and

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polished to a perfect shine that reality couldn’t compare to.

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It didn’t matter

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why I took him into myself so easily.

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All that mattered

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was that he was there,

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and that I had. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t wake up.

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There was nothing in the world I could want less.

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His eyes shimmered in the moonlight as he watched me.

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I smiled back, and it was the largest smile I could remember smiling in years. I smiled

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all the smiles I’d missed for him,

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and he winked at me

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like the coy devil he always was.

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And he moved. His paws moved all over my body.

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He ran through my fur,

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and wherever his fingers travelled they left that

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humming energy in their wake.

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The grey faded and the red returned, rusty

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and deep like it had been when we’d met.

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He traced across cuts and scars and bruises

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and I felt them mend before him.

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I felt myself renewed under his touch.

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Inside, my heart skipped another beat as it raced for him.

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It pumped with renewed vigour as one of his arms slid between me

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and the ratty old mattress beneath.

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He lifted me up and off it as he leaned back,

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and then I was in his arms.

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In his arms and in his lap with his body shadowed by mine.

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And I could still see him.

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I could still see that cheeky smile as he leaned in close,

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and it only vanished when his forehead touched to mine.

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His muzzle rubbed across my own –

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did he lick alongside it?

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He always did like to –

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as he lifted me with him,

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my body wrapped around his.

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I bore down against him

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and forced him deep.

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The best dream.

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The earliest memories.

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But the moment held none of the pain of strained muscles or the awkwardness of young lovers.

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The dream held the bodies of youth with the experience and driven desire of maturity.

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The dream set into motion the times we had wanted,

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as I rode up and down along his shaft.

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All the hot summer nights and cool winter mornings.

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All the blustery autumns and bright springs.

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They melded together with every rise and fall of my body.

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Time rolled with his hips

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as he helped slide up into me.

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I thought I felt the world turn around us.

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I didn’t question the ease with which I exerted myself.

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I didn’t care where I found the energy to be taken so vigorously by this apparition

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of a long lost love.

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It didn’t matter how or why.

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All that mattered

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were his eyes, locked on my own.

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My eyes, locked on his.

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An unbroken stare and

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a desperately happy smile.

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He was there. He was there.

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I swelled with him as I bore down.

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I panted with him as the end approached.

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Tightness gripped my chest as he squeezed me tight,

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and tightness gripped his malehood as I clenched upon him.

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He knew what was coming.

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We both felt it. One of his paws stroked my cheek,

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a mirror to how I cupped his.

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Breath caught in my throat.

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I braced at the precipice.

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We kissed as we peaked.

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A silent affair; a tremble of bodies locked together in the throes of passion.

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Love, muted by love.

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Pleasure of the flesh tingled through the satisfaction of the soul.

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Dream or not, he was there.

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He was the missing piece that fit.

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He was the piece

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that had never been replaced.

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Breath was stolen,

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just as my heart

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and soul had been stolen.

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The surge of the flesh ebbed away,

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but the emptiness remained fulfilled.

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It remained filled,

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and I squirmed atop him

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just as I had the first time.

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He smiled at me just as he had the first time.

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His fingers traced absently down my cheek and along my jaw.

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I felt my body sing with its new energy

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as our muzzles met once more.

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The first time for a second time.

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When we broke, I felt as though I could finally breathe again.

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I felt as though I could move and sing and run and leap.

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I felt free in a way I’d not felt since I was a child,

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and as I saw his smile warm

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I knew he understood.

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His eyes seemed to bore through me,

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past the shadow I cast and to the bed below.

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He began to pull back from me.

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I didn’t question how I felt him withdraw so smoothly,

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just as I hadn’t questioned

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how he’d slid in so effortlessly.

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I simply sat up, ears perked

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like a little puppy as I watched him almost seem to drift

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back into the moonlight.

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Further he went as he slipped seamlessly from the bed, only to pause and

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linger there at the very edge.

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He turned his gaze to the moon.

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I followed it and then,

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right there in the corner of my eye,

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I saw. I understood the truth behind me.

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Should I have been afraid?

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Should I have been

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uncertain? Shocked?

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I was none of those.

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Instead, I smiled.

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I smiled for him all the smiles we’d missed.

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I smiled for him all the smiles we’d yet have.

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He smiled back as he caught my eye.

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He nodded to me; offered me his paw.

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I didn’t hesitate for a moment.

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I grasped it tightly, with the same grip I’d held it the last time I’d felt him near. I held it with

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the grip of one who

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wouldn’t – who couldn’t – let go.

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I knew then that I would never,

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ever have to let go again, and all was right with the world at last.

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There were no more questions.

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The moonlight continued to drift across the empty old fox,

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still in his bed.

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No one was there to see us leave.

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This was “Empty” by Faora Meridian,

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read for you by Khaki,

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your faithful fireside companion.

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You can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,

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or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.

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Thank you for listening

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to The Voice of Dog.