Original Image Courtesy of Neill Kumar of Unsplash
Cropped by Erin Penn
Rating: Mature
With the moon watching other places, the lake at the end of the world captured the far lights and milk of the heavens in a pool of midnight black. The pure waters reflected the stars, joining Helio and Gea in perfect union. Henna waited in the fir trees watching the unmoving starlit water.
For the last four moonless nights, he had come and the forest nymph lips lifted in a small smile as the male’s new habit continued. Gods and men preferred to protection on nights Luna did not watch, for without Her light a soul did not have a guide through the dark into the Future Day. The male strode clothed in plant and animals from the path forest animals had beaten to the water.
His linen shirt and leather pants were quickly stripped. Henna tried to restrain her gasp as the man stood skyclad. He half-turned to her stifled sound. His body rippled with lean muscles. He was the most beautiful mobile being she had ever seen. She could feel his eyes search the shadows of trees, but she stood her ground motionless. The night was deep and the forest by the lake was hers.
One or two human hunters made it this far in their ranging. Gods had sometimes crossed the lake in their boats. But no village was within two days walk of the lake. Rarely did Henna see humans or other creatures not of her forest and she could not say if the male was either god or hunter.
He was clever. She had not been able to find his encampment the night she was bold enough to follow him. His eyes may be human weak, but his hearing was as sharp as tree’s ears. She knew not why the forest was hiding his home from her; how he commanded the loam and pines not to whisper his secrets to her. Henna had been tempted to send a songbird to a sister nymph to see if others knew of such magicks, but such action might mean sharing her male with someone and she could not bring herself to risk losing him just yet.
The man dove into the star water; widening circles, rippled, doubling, tripling the light. Assured of his diversion, Henna made her way closer to the area he had released his clothes. This night she meant to see his face and know him god, human or nymph. She yearned nymph as only such a being could she lay with; all else was forbidden.
Sinking down into the moss struggling to tie the forest to the lake, Henna blended in two body lengths from where his garments were discarded. Her red hair darkened from tree bark to garnet stone. She willed her skin to change from dappled light to sand sparkle. Then she drank in the sight of the male and waited.
He stepped from the water dripping black diamonds. Her hazel eyes followed the glittering rivulets flowing from his darkened tresses over shoulders bear-broad, a chest boulder smooth, abs rippling like rapids to a manhood as stout and thick as oaken root. His face, she must see his face, but he turned his back to her while he wrapped his waist-length hair around his fists and squeezed out drops of light.
Please, she begged Gea silently, may his eyes be stone or sapphire, earth or air nymph. Water and wood were female. But his beauty was so great she knew they would hold the fire of gods; no human or sprite could be so perfect. His face fell into shadow as he picked up his clothes and made his way to the stones where she hid. How had she forgotten he laid on stones to dry before redressing?
He collapsed among the stones beside her, stretching out among the moss. Frozen to immobility, her position let her see only his feet. She feared discovery.
Nymphs were playthings of the gods and thralls to humans who found them. Even male nymphs were either hard emotionless creatures or fickle capricious beings, depending on their element. Why had she been so intrigued? For hundreds of years the pines and deer had been her companions. To seek out a male, however beautiful was madness.
A hand caressed her butt. Henna knew her bare back cheeks looked like smooth stone and she had seen the male stroke the stones around him as he waited for the moss to absorb the water from his monthly swims. The hand dragged the other way, leaving a trail of lighting and fire behind. Another stroke and she felt her legs move slightly apart asking for attention deeper in her being. The hand stilled and she could feel his eyes bore into her camouflaged back, making out a female shape where none should be. The hand spread over the smooth pretend stones and pushed. Warmth and flesh rebounded into the calloused hand.
The male’s hand left her butt-cheeks for a moment and Henna tried not to moan from the loss. She could not keep the sharp yelp of surprise from escaping when the hand returned with a sharp smack. The sensation rippled up her spine and release her breasts from their illusion. Her glamour entire fell as her whole body tensed then released like water from the second slap.
The feet she had been staring at disappeared as the man moved. Henna tried to move as well, but two hands then grabbed her ass lifting it and slapping it both sides soundly. Dew emerged from her crevasse and her legs willingly rooted into place. The moan she had been holding back all night emerged as the male rubbed both sides of her ass and slowly sunk his trunk into her opening.
When she tried to twist to look over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of his face through her mass of hair, the male grabbed a hank and pulled her face forward. As he started to work his way in and out, trembling took Henna like a tree in the wind. First one then another eruption burst from her like pine cones in a fire. The male did not stop, but caught her closer to him as he wrapped one arm around to tease a nipple and the other arm braced him on the moss-covered boulders.
A whisper in her ear announced, “Ah, now little one. Some heaven”
Gea, please let his eyes be stone or sapphire was her last thought before the stars captured in the lake exploded back to the skies for an endless forever and night’s blackness claimed her.
(words 1,100 – first published 1/27/2013 ; republished new blog format 6/12/2016. Originally inspired by a photo on the Breathless Press site; picture is no longer available so recreated it using an unsplash.)
