Moonlight Valley: The Gay Beastmen's Quest for Freedom

I had spat out all the water I could. I was coughing, my sides hurting, but everything seemed alright. An urge to vomit, but I just held my breath and kept swimming.

"Everyone's safe now, Omhe." A male voice said. "You did good."

I heaved myself out of the water into a boat that looked like it was made from wood and had no paddles or sails. The same voice then told me to lie down on the floor of the boat as he waited for me to catch my breath. Dark hair and a tattoo on his face. He seemed human, but we were in Australia, so maybe he was one of us?

"You are safe now, Omhe," He said again. "We're back in the real world."

"Omhe?" I asked, still shocked at what just happened, but before I could say anything else, the man who saved me smiled and shook my hand.

"Glad to meet you, Omhe," He said cheerfully. "My name is...well...it's Steve."

Steve helped me up and sat me down next to him as he started rowing towards shore. As we got closer, I noticed that a lot of people had gathered on the shoreline by the ocean and were looking out at us with confused looks on their faces. They must have seen us coming in and thought us fish or something! They stared at us as Steve rowed us into shore and jumped out of the boat when it hit land.

"Are you Omhe?" One of them asked when Steve helped me out of the boat. All these people had tattoos on their face like Steve did! "A messenger from the Tribe?"

"Uh..." I muttered as Steve turned around and looked at me with a confused expression on his face. "Umm...yeah!"