Shadows of Naamor Ch. 00

His story was a well-guarded one. The more she wanted to know about him the more evasive he became, deflecting her questions with curiosity for her own miserable life. Back then it never occurred to her that she really didn't know anything about him.

Still, he was charming, breath-stealing. She could stare into his golden eyes for days.

Time was not lost on her, however. It was in the late hours of the afternoon when she decided to part ways with him, albeit reluctantly. The look he gave her before he said his final farewell made her heart sink, knowing they would never see each other again. Yet when she sought her horse from the village stables the man was waiting for her there on a great big pile of hay, boasting that infectious smile of his, urging her to stay.

She couldn't. Could she? Her father was due home with the setting sun and if she didn't go now there was little hope for her to keep today's little adventure a secret.

Her new friend took her aside and told her that he would deal with her father if it came to that, promising her that she had done nothing wrong. She believed him.

As the sun melted away into the horizon, so did her worries as her friend took her by the hand and brought them back to the inn when the sound of merriment there began. The men of the village were there, too, bringing boisterous life where it belonged.

Ayria dared to believe none of them were as sweet or handsome as the one who never left her side and asked her to dance when the bards worked up a good cheer from the crowd with their drums, lutes and flutes. The night was still young and as far as she was concerned she would dance till morning with the grace she had with her partner. His moves were flawless, earning envious gazes from women with clumsier men. Those men, too, seemed distracted by the display. Was it because of her?

She felt her insecurities wash away as she grew more comfortable in his hands, flirting ever gently each time their bodies pressed. Her eyes drank in his beauty till they were no longer sober, hungry for what she could not see, still clothed modestly.

She remembered what he looked like without them when she lead him to his room.

He was undressing her with his eyes long before she slipped out of her simple dress, letting him push her down on their bed with an eagerness that made her all the more keen to feel him inside her. She remembered the gasps of pleasure she rewarded him as he began exploring her flesh, tasting her sweet sweat on a heaving breast before he traced wet kisses down her taut belly, lingering at her navel for a time that made her murmur for so much more. He did just that as his attention finally sought her sex.

She was practically writhing when his emboldened tongue parted her nether lips, devouring her innocence, lapping at her juices as if he was starving for it.

His attention there ended a lifetime of sorrow, a lifetime of neglect. She felt like an old woman before that day, not knowing what it was truly like to be alive, in love. Was it really love, though? She dared to think it was for how else could she find so much pleasure with something so simple and primitive? She was not a lustful fool!

True love belonged to her when she had waited so long for it.

She remembered the look he gave her as she implored him to take her when hesitation suddenly crept into his mind. Though his erection bobbed feverishly before her he almost looked like he had second thoughts and pushed himself from the bed in a daze, still tasting her on his lips. He was as bold as a dragon before. What happened?

She rose with him, panic coursing in her blood, doubt setting in her trembling heart. There was a whisper from him too light that she could not hear it above the melody of the bards still playing by the hearth in the next room. Her loins still throbbed for him, eager to use more than his tongue to sate her. Yet he had the look of a man that had met the cruel gaze of a basilisk and prompted her to swallow the unease in her throat.

No. She would not let it end like this. She wanted more.

She saved the bane the more heated details.

"That doesn't explain how I found you in the forest," he insisted.

In her mind she wanted to return to her forbidden lover, enjoy his presence once more, yet it was a dream that made her shut her eyes at the realisation that the pleasure she felt that night ended in horror. She told the bane with a tinge of fear that she and the man she gave herself to were awakened by the growling of a demonic beast lurching over their entwined bodies, enraged by it. Her lover went wide-eyed before he pushed her from their bed in haste and told her to run as he willed to stay and fight the beast.

She never looked back. She couldn't. Fear convinced her naked body to head for the stables and ride on home without a second thought. She knew that if she did that she could escape what she saw and appreciate her father's anger as her only concern.

Yet the beast, somehow, was not one easily abandoned.

On leather wings it plucked her from her poor horse as it galloped ahead with its own breed of fear that almost gave it flight. Within moments its frightened neighing was barely heard before the beast set her down in the wilderness with a drop that knocked the wind from her, enough to end her ceaseless screaming. She refused to look back, though, refused to accept that the beast was right there, ready to devour her.

She ran. Nature, however, was not on her side.

For every step she took, something impeded her. She stumbled against upturned roots and the webs of silent fiends, slowing her pace as she tried desperately to keep going. Her legs began to weaken to the fear in her heart as she whimpered pathetically to the pain searing in her feet. They were much too soft for the sharp twigs that pierced her flesh like a thousand hidden spears and, all that time, she dreaded what followed her, laughing sinisterly.

It toyed with her, made her gasp as its fingers groped for her flesh when she fell. Eventually, though, even it got tired of the display as it reached out and tugged at her dishevelled long mane, earning a yelp before she dropped to her knees and fretted at the realisation that she wasn't going anywhere now, closing her eyes to the horror.

He had other plans, though, growling at her cowardice. "Woman. Look at me."

She obeyed.

At first she didn't know what to do, her head still spinning from the panic in her lungs. Yet when her gaze found the beast her mouth was agape, realising he was not the hideous thing her once sleepy eyes saw at the inn. Were it not for his demonic wings she would have mistaken him for a very handsome man with the body of a demi-god, chiselled with muscle, his perfect skin glistening in the strange moonlight that offered her a glimpse of his powerful, naked masculinity, enough to sate any woman's fantasy.

Sure enough, her eyes widened when she caught sight of his engorged manhood, earning a grin that made her shudder. It was at that point she knew what came next as he pressed his hands against her trembling shoulders and forced himself upon her.

The bane knew what came next. "I am sorry that I could not find you sooner."

Ayria shook her head at that. "No. Had you not appeared when you had I do not think I would be here now. You saw him, right? You saw what he had become?"

He closed his eyes at the thought. "Beasts like him are a curse in these lands, especially to true mortals like you and I. He preyed upon you as if you were mere livestock to him, yet what concerns me more is the thought that he no stranger to these lands and that he's yet to understand the forbidden power he's yet to master."

"What do you mean?" she asked timidly.

"Tell me," the bane said, looking at her with concern that made her feel uneasy. "When the beast... made you his, did you not feel enslaved to him? Did you feel lost in his presence, as if your body betrayed you? Please, ... I must know the truth."

"The truth?" she stammered, hugging her body insecurely as a sudden wave of pleasure washed over her. She tried to forget it, tried to think about what happened earlier that night with the man whom she thought she loved. Yet the more she tried to think about him the more the beast's bold likeness replaced him in her heated mind, quivering with lust she could no longer deny. It was as if the mere thought bored a well deep inside her that made her collapse to her knees, earning a needy whimper.

Her eyes went wide at the sudden realisation that her body betrayed her still that day, her inner thighs already wet from her juices as she tried to stifle a moan while her legs clamped together in pleasure. Her breath was already heady for it, longing for what nearly tore her in two. Suddenly, it was the only thing she desired anymore.

The bane went to her with an outstretched hand, placed it quickly on her forehead as her body writhed in memory of the beast's touch. She could feel an orgasm coming, sense she was nearly over the edge. That was until the bane uttered a gentle word, alien yet strangely familiar to her. With the word came a soothing warmth that spread from his palm into her mind, washing away the chaos there as her body still warred with grace and passion. She tried to understand it, tried to embrace the power of the light that began to subdue her carnal thoughts, bring peace to her tortured body.

The peace only came when she fell into his arms, exhausted from the ordeal.

She was barely conscious when her father arrived to see the sorry sight. "Just what in the Creator's name is going on here, bane?! I thought you said you healed my girl?!"

"Healing takes time," the bane said, looking up from his daughter with a frown as he held her with the gentleness of a unperturbed saint. There was no judgement for what he saw that day, only compassion. Ayria's father must have sensed that as he went to scoop up his flesh and blood into his own trembling arms, trying to hide the fear he showed in his docile, big brown eyes with a sudden surge of anger across his face.

"So what are ye going to do about it then?" he asked, hugging his daughter tight. "This can't go on, can it?"

"No," the bane plainly replied, "I promise you this violation will not go unpunished."