This story was a gift written by  pkrr and also featuring  vezhris! Based on this art of Volt done by  kartos

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*shump! Fwip!* The umbrella stood proudly from the pale white sand, angled just enough to shade most of the large beach towel underneath. A gentle breeze caught the soft fabric, sending ripples across the towel before the ram flopped on top of it with a soft sigh of relaxation. Vic stretched out, screwing his eyes tight as cartilage shifted with several pops of relief. “Four glorious days left here...” he muttered with a self-satisfied smirk. “I need to volunteer for conferences that get cancelled last minute more often.” The eleventh hour SNAFU left the massive ram with nothing to do but soak up the sun and sights in the coastal city before duty called him back home.

He idly watched the nearby beachfront gym goers head in. Many of them big, some huge, but none could hold a candle to Vic. A set of perfectly mountainous traps sloped sharply down his neck, meeting with cannonball delts, thick horseshoe triceps, and biceps that looked like smuggled grapefruit. His chest threatened to brush his chin, all eight of his abs on full display, rising and falling with his gentle breath. Legs that looked like they could hold him and ten of his twin brothers up completed the picture, complete with hydraulic cable hamstrings, quads like tomahawk steaks and calves that could outflex the thighs on most of the nearby gym goers. On the verge of completing a contest cut, the ram lacked most of his body fat, causing every group to pop with an anatomy-chart level of definition. Thick vascularity adorned his muscle groups, his skin practically painted on. If his eyes and demeanour didn’t betray his gentle personality, he’d likely empty the beach from intimidation alone. Already the looks of envy, of jealousy, of interest and of lust were starting, not that he wasn’t used to it. Or minded, for that matter.

What he DID mind was that his friends had been held up on public transit, and there was something or other jabbing him right in the ribs under the towel. He started to fish underneath it with a frown as his phone buzzed. He grumbled as he tried to dig it out of his shoulder bag, finding a few rapidfire IMs from Blazes, half of the couple he was expecting.

“hey dude, sry. goddamn bus hit every red light in the universe. Getting off now where are you?” Punctuated by a few stickers indicating that his bird friend was less then pleased with the local bus lines. The ram swiped around with one thumb, still digging under the towel, finding purchase on something hard and pointed that he was trying to get underneath to yank out.

“no worries. turn left at the first aid station and keep walking, about 300 ft after the ice cream stand”

It wasn’t long before his awaited guests arrived. Blazes and Vezhris, friends from up north, visiting the area by sheer serendipity when the ram was sent down.

“Bloody HELL,” the phoenix started, his voice trailing into an indignant squawk, “Ten stops from the depot and it still took that long?!” Vic smiled with commiseration. His friend was a recent inductee into the metaphorical religion of lifting, but it looked like he was already gunning for sainthood. The bird was in loose fitting shirt and shorts, but the telltale bulging in the chest region, and the globe-like muscles threatening to show through his preened feathers betrayed how addicted the phoenix was to lifting. Mid-bulk, the bird lacked Vic’s definition, and indeed his size, but the swollen muscle groups flexed with each movement, looking almost eager to keep growing to an unheard of size. Vic knew the bird was aiming to impress, and impressed he was.

The wolf next to him was a sheer wall of lupine might. Adorned with silver and blue fur, Vezhris was the bird’s husband and a 7 foot giant of masculine might. The wolf didn’t care much for competing, just exercise for it’s own sake, but the results were obvious, as were the mountains of beef bulging under his thick fur. The wolf was, in a word, a monster. An overheated monster by the way he panted. “Made...it...” he groaned, flopping unceremoniously under the shade. “Oh my god...I hate this weather.”

“Drink, wolfy...” the bird ordered, tossing him a water bottle, “Vic, holy crap, good to see you.” The bird grasped the proffered hand firmly, a smile reaching his eyes that couldn’t move his static beak. “You’re looking well, work treating you okay? ...You alright dude, you look like you’re being tortured.” The bird added, seeing Vic squirming with a hand under the towel.

“Yeah...worksfine....hangon..” the ram snarled...finally wrenching the object free! Only to find he’d unearthed...a football? The wolf instantly stopped paying attention to his water, eyes locked on the ball.

“Think you can pull a rabbit out of the sand next?” the bird snarked.

“Well, I’m not a magician, but I might just make this stupid thing disappear.” The ram grumbled, getting to his feet.

“No! I mean...we could play with it!” Vezhris suddenly piped up. The ice wolf growled in his usual stoic tone...his tail wagging up a sandstorm behind him as he eyed the ball. “OH..but first, honey, give me your wallet.” The wolf demanded, towering over his husband, who merely rolled his eyes, provided the item, and watched as the wolf practically skipped back up the beach to the boardwalk.

“Uh....” Vic started.

“He saw the ice cream on the way in. Would NOT stop with the puppy dog eyes the rest of the way. I know you’re cutting but we’ll share if you want. C’mon, let’s test that thing out while he gets that out of his system.”

“I’ll probably taste if you’re offering, but likely won’t partake much.” The ram replied, walking with the bird a slight distance down to the water, gently tossing it at the bird. “Here, I need to cool my hooves for a sec, you seem immune to this hellish sand.”

“Comes with the species.” Blazes chirped with a grin, “Go long, big guy!” He tossed it as the ram hit the water, Vic starting to jog to be in position.

The gentle breeze picked up at that moment, turning into a gust of wind that caused Vic’s fur to blow forcefully, and caused the ball to jerk slightly, threatening to sail clean over his head. The ram was not to be intimidated, and picked up the pack, a joyful grin spreading over his features. He ran under the ball, overshot it, twisted and leaped with a shout. The noise attracted the attention of several gym goers, pausing to watch the spectacle unfold. The golden ram had nabbed the ball clean out of the air, massive arms stretched high and tensed as he gripped the ball tightly. His wide lats fully on display, and his thick pecs pushing most of the way towards his chin as he reached up high. Veins ran cleanly over his biceps, delts and burrowed into his pec crevice, others emerging down the thick beef of his lats. His stomach was pulled in from the leap, a clean ab vacuum on display, all 8 crunched in the morning sun, reflecting the light off those cream coloured cobblestones. But his legs were stealing the show, all the muscles fighting for the spot light as he kicked into the air, not just for show as he snagged the ball from a good distance over his head.

The ram landed with a splash into the rushing waves, still grinning like a lunatic. He looked up to the bird who waved a distance away, putting his arms up for the return throw. Behind Blazes, the gym goers were still watching. A quiet thought swam up to Vic’s mind, “If it’s a show they want...” he muttered to himself.

The ram hunkered down, gripping the ball tightly and looked up at Blazes. His traps and delts sprang into sharp relief as he squeezed the ball, his head looking like it shrank as his upper body bulged out with his hard flex. He planted his back leg, quads and hamstrings popping from his fur and fighting with each other for space as he reared up and back. His free hand went straight forward, tricep fully contracted and on display, as his throwing arm crunched into a hard bicep flex, the mountain of beef looking ready to burst past his wrist at any moment. Taking a step forward, “accidentally” stomping down with his leg to accentuate the strength within, the ram threw the ball with all his might straight at his friend’s distant figure. As he came forward, the tension spread to his massive back. Traps and rhomboids and lats, a geographical range of mountains and canyons fully on display. He held the pose for a few brief moments, tensing it for the viewers. The grin never leaving his face as he relaxed and straightened up to see his bird friend crossing his arms, an indignant trill leaving his beak. The gym goers meanwhile were gawking, filming, and some of them even dragging others over to view the pinnacle of ram power that had just fired a football clean off the beach.

The ram trotted back to his friend. The golden beak of the phoenix had just opened to deliver a squawking excoriation of epic proportions when Vezhris trotted up. Several mountains of ice cream sundaes between his thick paws...and a familiar looking football in his maw. He gently tossed it back at Vic with his tail wagging.

“Nice throw, Vic!” the wolf said with a toothy grin.