Prince Otto of the Barlow royal family had been assigned to rule over the kingdom of Bruin's lawless, inhospitable northern hinterlands. Terrifying hyenid humanoids known as 'gnolls' had been ransacking the sparsely populated region for centuries, violently abducting entire human communities to serve as slaves, or worse, sacrifices to the various dark gods each gnoll tribe worshiped. The kingdom of Bruin had grown so exhausted from this constant, merciless reaving that a treaty was drawn up with a mighty tribe of amenable gnolls to formally settle in the kingdom's northern ranges, and thus defend them from any further barbarian incursions. To seal this momentous treaty, Prince Otto himself was offered up in marriage to the Fang-Lurker gnoll tribe's amazonian warrior queen.
All of these tense and momentous negotiations regarding the northern realm and its leader, though they better resembled wanton bribery, were done entirely without Otto Barlow's knowledge or approval. Upon receiving first word of his betrothal, well after-the-fact, the foppish young noble was absolutely terrified of being wedded off to a barbarous, inhuman gnoll woman. All Otto enjoyed were lavish social soirees, collecting art, and the decadent lifestyle his nobility afforded. The pampered dandy of a prince had no interest in being wedded to a stinking gnoll woman covered in coarse, hoary fur. The hyenid matriarchs were famously dominating and jealous, and the young prince was worried his new bride would react poorly upon learning of his dallying nature.
Otto had to ask around and investigate amongst the higher-order royal Barlows just to discover the name of the gnoll queen he was arranged to marry, discovering she was known as 'Hyra the Head-Hewer'; the title did not fill him with any confidence as to his bride-to-Be's femininity. Arriving just as unannounced and unappreciated as news of his inter-species engagement, the popular ruler's human subjects reported chaos and disorder from the encroaching presence of great migratory caravans of Fang-Lurker gnolls. Savage hordes of the churlish gnolls ferociously displaced the locals, and jockeyed among themselves for control of the choicest lands in the scraggly, barren northern realm. True to form, the arriving gnolls seemed to display a rapacious and domineering nature no matter where they went, or who they associated with, and Prince Otto was increasingly coming to dread meeting and marrying his hyenid betrothed. As the issues of co-habitation between gnoll and human mounted, and fearful rumors spread, Otto was hoping he could smooth out and settle the disturbances that arose from her ferocious people's proximity amid the smaller, meeker humans that inhabited his principality.
Hyra made her presence known by an advance party of huge, burly gnoll warriors. The warband of spotted-fur hyenids nearly came to blows with Otto's household guard upon initially being denied entry to his castle estate. After Otto begrudgingly bade his guards to open the portcullis, he could already hear the hunched-over beastmen releasing braying hoots of mirth upon gaining access to the Barlow prince's opulent, sprawling manse. The slovenly gnolls swarmed in and promptly settled themselves into every nook and cranny of his rich estate, daring any to challenge their forceful migration. The brawny gnolls heaved in heavy mounds of stinking hides, grisly trophies, and countless savage weapons with them, soon cluttering Otto's once-pristine abode with their vermin-infested rubbish. Otto whirled about among the towering, hirsute creatures that scurried into his homestead, trying to negotiate with them, but receiving back nothing but silence or rude shoves to move aside. The human noble wasn't even sure the creatures spoke his language, but even if they did, they certainly didn't seem amenable to taking orders from the scrawny human, despite the royal guards that accompanied him at all times.
Finally, a particularly foul-smelling band of armored beasts proudly sauntered into his marble-floored lobby, which was now scuffed and soiled with refuse. The phalanx of bestial warriors was a tightly-thronging mass of long necks, bulging muscles, and snarling fanged ferocity. The gnolls came as if prepared for war, each furry creature heaving a gigantic, crude poleaxe or flail in their clawed paws. Otto tried to maintain a dignified pose as he approached the gang of surly gnolls, the hyena people's rusty armor clanking and screeching with their bounding steps. Otto visibly paled, his heart hammering with irrepressible dread, as he finally spied what was undoubtedly the great gnoll queen herself, Hyra the Head-Hewer.
The most hulking of the shaggy, brawny beasts lorded over her obsequious pack, frequently batting at her flinching underlings with a broad, plate-mailed paw. Hyra had a rough pelt of tawny fur, matted tufts of which poked out haphazardly from under her armor's seams and the dyed rags draped across her great physique. The oversized gnoll's long, thick, maned neck loomed forward as she sniffed about inquisitively, her beady, cruel eyes settling down upon Otto and his blanching entourage of bodyguards intently.
"You! Husband!" the she-warg roared out, bounding ahead of her braying pack of hyena henchmen and approaching Otto in a brazen pounce. Several of the princeling's bravest defenders formed up in front of him, but the growling gnoll bowled over them effortlessly, smacking aside his remaining entourage with her heavy-duty gauntlets. "J-just back away, leave me to her!" Otto yelled out, as the great gnoll queen grabbed him roughly and threw him to the carpeted floor. She straddled over his chest in a domineering squat, bending her lengthy, corded neck low as she sniffed at his face with her bestial snout.
The gnoll's wet nose huffed excitedly about his face, smearing across his cheeks intently in places as she planted a slow, languid lick upon his charming-featured face. "I like your smell, you smell like flowers, little man," Hyra exclaimed in a guttural whine. Otto was completely overwhelmed by the dismaying turn of events, feeling utterly disgusted as his new 'wife' began slobbering over his face with her long, flat tongue like a greeting dog. Otto looked up to see his bruised and battered guards meekly milling around from afar, averting their gaze from his own as the gnoll woman seemingly claimed him. He was even more dismayed when Hyra's own pack crowded about, yipping and howling in an inhuman, mocking tone at Otto's domination. The Barlow royal tried to speak up to the assertive beast woman as she withdrew her slavering muzzle from his drenched visage, before he fearfully noted Hyra repositioning her thick, furry thighs over his head.
As the great gnoll queen lined her eager hips over the human's face, Otto got a look under her meager loincloth at the thick gnarl of coarse, damp hair obscuring the hyenid's heated sex. "L-look, if we could just talk this out for a moment--" but before Otto could finish, the armored gnoll woman plopped her crotch down heavily over his face, instantly muffling the horrified noble. Hyra snorted and yipped out happily as Otto's screaming face thrashed about between her thighs, the forceful gnoll taking advantage and locking her thick legs tightly about his relatively small head. The fastidious royal was increasingly horrified as the roused gnoll woman snuggled his nose and mouth past her matted, filthy crotch fur, Hyra grunting aloud as she finally began jamming her fleshy, soggy lips over his delicate features wantonly. The horny gnoll rode the prince for some time, before finally allowing his gasping face to emerge from her shaggy nethers, his face now glistening with musky, cloying vaginal discharge and strands of gnoll fur. Otto was raised to rule, to serve in battle, to be brave, but in that moment the once-haughty noble felt utterly defeated, and began openly weeping at this disgusting humiliation. The gnoll's savage, animalistic face shot the crying prince an unreadable expression, then brought him up to her chest and guided his face over her rusted gorget, nestling his wet features into her furry nape.
The royal ruler didn't have the strength to resist as Hyra began lapping at his soggy features, replacing the glistening sheen of her sexual fluids with thick, viscous gnoll slobber. Still without speaking, the great warrior queen thrust him down curtly upon the ground, and nuzzled her moist muzzle down his chest, towards his leather breeches. Otto was about to complain before the hyena woman placed a great, hairy paw over his mouth, and ripped his pants open with her jagged fangs. Otto's muffled screams erupted from under her palm, as he stared at her snarling, drooling maw settling over his uncovered penis. The creature's flat, soft tongue fished his reluctant phallus up, and the assertive hyenid snapped her fanged jaws about his cock possessively. Otto fearfully whimpered as he tried to push the insistent gnoll's snout from his groin, "P-please Hyra, watch your sharp teeth, my member can't take that kind of abuse!" Eventually, the suckling hyena woman curled her rubbery, wet lips over her protruding fangs, safeguarding Otto's sensitive prick from her sharp teeth. The princeling felt increasingly incensed as the gnoll woman's wet nose snuffled up against his belly button as her long mouth clung to his growing erection. She used her strong jaws and tongue to milk him so vigorously that Otto was rapidly approaching climax, making him feel ashamed for being sexually overwhelmed by the hirsute creature.
Hyra then used her wide, strong paws to guide Otto's wrists to her thick neck mane and fuzzy, rounded ears, seeming to urge him to use his grip for leverage as she held the prince still while suckling like a hungry wolf. The confused man reluctantly hooked his soft fingers into the she-warg's coarse mane, feeling her happy, throaty grumbles in response. Not knowing what else to do, Otto just petted at the domineering gnoll queen who rapidly nursed his throbbing manhood to climax, his seminal eruptions disappearing in her wide, muscular neck. Hyra sucked on the man's oozing prick until Otto squealed from refractory oversensitiveness, the gnoll reluctantly releasing his soggy, limp, and sore penis from her slimy muzzle with a little burble. Otto cringed inwardly as the hoary beast woman lapped at a slimy strand of his ejaculate which dangled from her curling lip, eagerly gathering up every drop of his emission. After a lingering moment of exchanging a tense, emotional, and bewildered look with the looming gnoll, Otto spoke up, "What the hell was that? Why did you just slam me down and...fornicate with me like that?"
The leering gnoll queen gruffly barked back, "That was the wedding rite. We are bonded for life now. I own you." Otto fought back more tears, as his awaiting entourage finally dragged him out from under the kneeling gnoll woman and got him to his feet. Otto spent a minute composing himself, trying to tuck away his wet dick back into his ruined pants, but finding them too torn to salvage. Finally, ever the dutiful diplomat, Otto timidly spoke up, "Well, I guess I'll show you around, then..."
***
Hyra's personal guard of burly gnoll loyalists crowded Otto's many beloved courtiers from the castle's finest rooms, as Otto glumly marched his huge, musky gnoll wife to his bedroom. Upon entering the great and splendid room, packed with expensive artworks, intricate glassworks, and other fascinating ornaments, Hyra intently dragged his great mattress and several other expensive tapestries into a pile in the middle of the room. Otto didn't know what to make of it, until she promptly began ripping and shredding them to pieces. Otto tried to speak out, but the gnoll woman turned her long neck around and shot him a glaring look that instantly stifled any of his objections. Eventually, Hyra curled up atop the nest of feathery, lacy ruin, and stretched out luxuriously. The hulking gnoll lazily heaved her crude plate suit apart, chaotically throwing its pieces about the carpeted floor, until she was hoisting her ragged underclothes off, finally revealing the stinking she-beasts shaggy, nude body completely. Otto's legs felt paralyzed with reluctance as the hyenid harridan beckoned him over to her bedding of threshed finery.
Hyra curled Otto up into her hairy chest like he was her small child, the warrior queen's brawny arms possessively draped about him, their weight slightly crushing his weak frame. The hyena woman kept snuffling at his hair and face, seeming to enjoy the expensive, floral perfume Otto consistently gussied himself with. As the controlling beast eventually settled into a content, grasping embrace, licking at his neck and cheeks occasionally, Otto just tried to suppress his revulsion from Hyra's cloying scent and mangy, greasy fur.
As this controlling canoodling continued on for some time, Otto's revulsion magnified as he became aware of a creeping sensation across his stripped frame. Looking intently at his bare skin under the flickering candlelight, the finicky royal noticed invading legions of lice, tics, and fleas sallying forth to a new host from Hyra's dreaded locks of gnoll fur. Stifling a yelp, his mind searching for a tactful way to address his betrothed's infestation, Otto croaked out, "Um, Hyra? C-could I, perchance, have the honor of grooming you? In the style of my people, of course."
After a long and tense moment, the embracing gnoll queen grumbled out, "Mmm...Okay."
The Barlow royal's household servants were grateful for some return to normalcy, as they stoked the boiler fires to get bathwater ready for the prince's grand and exquisite porcelain tub. Otto anxiously awaited a hot bathing with his hoary betrothed, the soiled man eager to wash off the grease, sweat, pests and gnoll fur that had been accumulating on his small, wiry frame as Hyra's grabby and fondling nature repeatedly manifested. Otto felt repeatedly disgraced as his various servants shuffled past with steaming buckets, averting their gaze from Otto's naked frame, tucked up to Hyra's broad chest like a mournful ragdoll. As the expansive tub was finally brimmed with cleansing water and expensive suds, Otto eagerly peeped out, "A-alright...dear, I'm going to treat you to a royal-class washing! Let's get in now, I can feel your tics implanting..." But as Otto meekly drawled off, Hyra clutched him tight and radiated reluctance.
Realizing the hyenid woman seemed a bit daunted by the whole process, Otto said, "Here, just let me go and I'll get in first. It's great, you'll love it." The gnoll tensely kept her meaty paw clenched to his wrist as Otto awkwardly clambered over the alabaster lip of his tub, shivering and sighing at the purifying embrace of hot, perfumed water. Hyra sullenly grumbled deep in her throat as Otto tried to tug her along into the tub, letting out a little yip as she first stepped into the sloshing bath. The soapy water spilled out and flooded across the marbled floor as the big gnoll's volume settled down in front of Otto, squishing him up into the back of the tub. Otto was surprised to feel the warrior queen trembling slightly as she gradually adjusted to the heated experience, eliciting him to soothingly pat at her curved back and shaggy mane. She scooted up tight into his embrace, pinning him hard against the bathtub's hard rim, clutching at her knees defensively. Hyra spoke out in a deep grumble, "Hook your legs around my waist and press tight...just do it." The prince obsequiously responded, cradling up tight around her hoary body in an intimate embrace amid the swilling water.
After a few minutes of settling in together inside the cramped tub, Otto became startled by the layered and encrusted filth clinging to his bestial betrothed. The water's surface became a morbid spectacle of drowning parasites, desperately clinging to the porcelain edges and Otto's body as the prince did his darnedest to delouse Hyra. Otto's impressive collection of delicate, scented shampoos barely penetrated the matted gnarls of oily gnoll fur, and when a serving girl brought forth more steaming buckets into the half-flooded chamber, Otto called out desperately, "Lye, I need pure lye...several bricks of it."
The determined prince soon found himself soaking in a thick soup of aged gnoll sweat, oil, and hair as he systematically worked out the snarling knots and tangles from Hyra's unkempt pelt. Otto became lost in the systematic task, his skillful fingers lathering, kneading, and rinsing the gnoll's huge body in sections to make the process manageable. His scrawny arms trembled and protested at the exhausting efforts, but Hyra's dreamy little murmurs focused him, and he felt a little thrill of vindication when she'd yelp aloud from his tugging on a stubborn fur knot. Otto grimly realized he was cleansing away perhaps decades of accrued detritus, pungent and foul odors escaping when he soaked and washed the most mangy and clumped sections of her thick, spotted fur coat. After hours of taxing efforts, the water lukewarm and his fingers wrinkled like prunes, Otto realized he'd done all he could during this first, productive session of grooming. Lifting a jeweled cup high to douse Hyra's arching back, the gnoll got a bit frisky in the cozy tub.
The prince was happy to note Hyra was warming up to the experience, playfully batting at the water's dirtied surface and leaning into his pouring efforts. When he strained to lift the cup up high to dunk her twitching ears, the gnoll leaned back and aimed her snout up into the warm, comforting waters expectantly. Otto quickly dropped the cup away as the hyenid woman immediately began squirming and growling out, suddenly incensed and frenzied. Otto barely managed to scramble out from behind Hyra as she became lost in a berserk rage, snarling aloud incoherently and pounding wildly at the tub's thick rim. Otto was utterly baffled and plaintive, until the gnoll's splashing rage splattered his face, and he realized the water was stinging with lye. Trying to yell in a soothing tone over her guttural yells, Otto quickly said, "H-Hyra! Just calm down, I can make it better! Let me rinse your eyes and nose!"
But the gnoll warrior queen was lost to her pained anger, and in an impressive display of mighty furor, systematically smashed apart the huge tub in a spray of water and pulverized masonry. Otto quailed back into a corner of the sodden room, trying to avoid the furious hyena woman's directionless wraith as she bounded about, clawing at anything delicate and within reach. Noticing a bucket of cooling, fresh water, Otto broke for it and splashed Hyra across her muzzle with the water, causing the gnoll to pause and wildly shake her shaggy head from side to side. After a few moments Hyra gradually calmed, her rippling chest heaving with panting breath as her dark nostrils flared. The gnoll stared at Otto, blinking wildly, but clearly relieved as the harsh cleanser washed from her eyes. She looked around a moment, having the decency to at least appear slightly mollified at the destroyed plumbing and decorations marring the luxurious room, before the big gnoll gruffly yipped, "It's your fault..."
Otto Barlow gingerly leaned Hyra down onto his sturdiest stool, situated before his personal bedroom mirror. She was still a bit skittish from the bathroom incident, and it was with great reluctance that he finally managed to seat the damp gnoll woman, promising a deep and luxuriant grooming that finally assuaged her reservations. He selected out an assortment of oils, conditioners, and perfumes, preparing for the onerous process of tending so much shaggy gnoll fur to his exacting standards. The prissy princeling had developed a habit of gussying up his nightly paramours, and developed an affinity for hairdressing. Tending to the coarse textures of Hyra's layered gnoll fur was well beyond Otto's amateurish experience, but he threw himself at the task diligently, massaging in hair oils while brushing and combing away her lingering, knotted clumps of damp hide. Hyra responded wonderfully to all the dutiful, intimate attention, closing her eyes as an imminently pleased expression crept across her harsh hyenid features.
The amateur hairdressing noble was surprised to find Hyra's coat of fur possessed a fluffy, curly springiness when unencumbered by saturating body oils. Her tan, mottled coat soon puffing out fantastically, almost comically compared to her earlier unkempt countenance. Tactfully finishing the primping session by massaging beard oil through her thick, scruffy mane, Otto noticed Hyra finally open her beady eyes, their rims slightly crusted with dried tear gunk and bath residue. The small, human prince immediately tensed with anxiety as Hyra's expression suddenly flared with indiscernible gnollish emotions, her trembling paw passing across her soft, bouncy mane. Otto was poised to make a break for it, until Hyra's throaty voice grumbled out, "I'm...pretty. You made me pretty..." Otto carefully watched over his betrothed's manner, noticing her becoming entranced and seemingly estranged with her newfound appearance. The huge hyena woman whirled about and pounced upon Otto, slathering him in a fresh coat of musty, slimy gnoll slobber as she ferociously licked across his pale face.
***
Step by step and day by day, Otto found Hyra increasingly agreeable to a mutually respectful and romantic relationship. He'd even convinced the great gnoll queen to participate in a human-styled marriage ceremony, partially owing to her great fondness for their earlier gnoll wedding rites upon first meeting. Otto even managed to convince a few of his closer relatives to attend the ceremony, skillfully omitting just how many gnolls would be in attendance, considering Hyra, or her numerous daughters, had mothered well over a quarter of the Fang-Lurker's current burgeoning population.
Knowing how well Hyra responded to his attempts to respect and meet her strange, hyenid culture half-way, Otto endeavored to ingratiate himself to some of Hyra's inner pack for advice on gnollish customs. Her boisterous cabal seemed to respond wonderfully to wanton bribery, and soon the prince was speedily trying to decipher the broken dialects of numerous drunken hyena soldiers crowding about him. Leaving with a surprisingly well-fitting kilt of poorly-stitched goat hides and a bottle of gnoll perfume, Otto parted company with the often-mocking brutes amid an uncharacteristically jovial and supportive atmosphere. Hyra's militant packmates had never seemed to respect him much, until now.
Standing on the wedding stage platform in his distressingly revealing kilt and reeking of musky perfume, Otto was comforted by his uncle, Albrecht, who had often participated in the young Barlow's regal upbringing. They both awaited Hyra, who had insisted on following the human tradition of not being seen by the groom before the vows proper. Otto scanned about, realizing almost nobody of any note or station had stayed in attendance on his side of the wedding aisles. Hyra's numerous gnollish offspring began taking advantage and crowding about on the free seating as they yipped about and paid no heed to the stage's proceedings, tossing chairs about for fun and occasionally smashing them apart to light little bonfires on the immaculate lawn for no particular reason. When Hyra herself appeared, flanked by matriarchal pack leaders from the Fang-Lurker's lesser, satellite tribes, Otto's jaw gaped open in astonishment.
Realizing where his luxuriant Carpeshi lace drapes had been disappearing to, the resplendent gnoll queen padded forward, draped in a great and billowing gown of lacy cloths, stitched together with surprising care and grace. She tightly gripped a great bridal bouquet of impromptu foliage, including flowers, vegetables, and a few tuberous roots, though the heartfelt sentiment was clearly apparent. Hyra beamed happily at Otto, her big tongue panting and shaggy tail wagging in excitement, until her face suddenly dropped with clear disappointment and agitation. Noticing the odd reaction, Albrecht tactically took a few steps away from Otto's side, clearing the way between gnoll-wife and man.
Hyra dropped her big bouquet, several large potatoes falling out from the depths, Hyra's favorite type, as she quickly bounded up to Otto angrily. "Why are you wearing slave clothes? And why are you drenched in gnoll piss? It's not even mine..." Hyra finished, sounding incredibly disappointed by that fact. The flummoxed princeling was so overwhelmed with surprise, he couldn't even stammer out a response, until a nearby cacophony redirected Hyra's ire. The gnoll queen's warrior pack where braying and cackling with hyenid laughter at the scene, back-slapping with drunken revelry until noticing Hyra hatefully rounding on them, leaping from the wedding platform and landing in a bestial pose.
Otto could barely make out the yammering, high-pitched gnoll excuses that flowed from the panicked lackeys. He eventually noticed them all diverting blame and attention by pointing towards a small, runty gnoll in the back that Otto remembered had had absolutely nothing to do with any of this trickery. He tried to explain this to Hyra, moments too late before she swooped upon the squealing shrimp and violently began unmaking him with her sharpened claws, muscular arms rippling with the gory effort. Just as quickly, Hyra sprang back up on the stage and lifted up her crumpled bouquet from the floor, her fur, face, and lacy dress inundated with dripping gnoll viscera. Otto exchanged a nervous side-look with the Bruin priest ordaining the marriage as Hyra rounded up, happy and eager to continue the ceremony regardless of earlier events and Otto's humiliating appearance.
The lightly-garbed prince cringed inwardly as he tightly grasped Hyra's blood-soaked paw, feeling the warm grume dripping across his lithe fingers. With a nervous nod of assent from Otto, the Priest started the marriage vows, which had been modified to fit the inter-species nature of this union of man and gnoll, "