The two young girls played vivaciously in the cool water by the glade. As they splashed and frolicked, their laughter echoed around the mountain valley. The surrounding trees, comprising primarily of larch, beech and spruce – and, of course, oak – gently whispered their approval.
They were safe here. Locals knew not to disturb them.
The sisters were special – as was the valley. The power and magic that resided in the trees, the stones, the water and the earth was a mystery. No one knew why the place was magical – only that it was. Over and over again, good things had happened here.
The siblings were Bandorai, female druids descended from a powerful line and destined to lead their tribe one day. Their training had already begun, but they were still very young. They were full of fun and mischief, often exasperating their elders.
But so enchanting were the sisters that no one could refuse them for long.
Then the wind changed; a breeze from the south reached the prescient oaks, and suddenly a chill descended upon the ancient groves.
ooOoo
The raiders didn’t know of the power residing in the young Bandorai, or the significance of this remote, high-up valley in the mountains. They didn’t know not to meddle.
Their mistake would have chilling consequences…
ooOoo
Tatranská Lomnica, High Tatra mountains, Slovakia – 1998
“…and the Cotini – a Celtic tribe – occupied this region from around the 5th century BC. Legend has it that the valley above the village was home to a formidable Chieftain whose daughters wielded powerful magic.
But a raid – possibly by Romans, though they rarely ventured this far north – pillaged and destroyed the hidden village, brutally slayed the resident druids, and callously violated the girls before butchering them.
It is said, however, that none of the raiders ever managed to return home. All died strange and unusual deaths – some within hours, and others after a few days, or even weeks later.
Now the valley, once regarded as a friendly and welcoming place, is dark and forbidding. It is reputed that nobody enters it and comes out unaffected. Locals believe that one of the young girls – or the monstrosity that she became – still resides amongst the oak groves. They say that she haunts the valley still, and if anyone is foolish enough to enter, her spirit will invade your mind and drive you insane with terror.”
ooOoo
I closed the guidebook thoughtfully; I couldn’t deny I was intrigued – and also somewhat troubled, though I didn’t know why.
The small paperback was an English translation of a locally produced guidebook describing the history of the High Tatra mountains. I’d bought it that morning from one of the small tourist shops in the village. Reflecting, I opened the book once more at the relevant page to study the boxed text. It made no mention of the origin of the story or who had written it.
“Hello?”
I looked up. A stunningly attractive girl stood in front of me. Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts, and hiking boots, her bright blue eyes stared out of a tanned, freckled face and humorously assessed me. Bushy auburn hair completed the picture of a wholesome, fit young teenage hiker.
Good legs, I thought to myself. Good everything, in fact!
“I see you have the same guidebook I have,” she said, enthusiastically. Her English had a slight but definite accent – possibly German, I thought.
I glanced at the book she was holding up. It was undoubtedly the same edition as the one I was reading from, though a deal more dog-eared than my own pristine copy.
She indicated the page I had open on the café table. “I see you’ve been reading about the local horror story.” She paused. “I’m going up there tomorrow. My guide is taking me.”
“You have a guide?” I said, to cover my surprise at her words.
“Yes – though actually, he’s a student who lives in the village. He’s just earning some extra money during the summer break.”
“And he’s taking you up to that valley?” I must have sounded slightly dense, repeating her words back to her.
She blushed. “Well, what he actually said was that he would take me to where the valley is. I did get the impression that he doesn’t actually want to go inside.”
“So, you think there’s some truth in this story, do you?”
“Well – I think the locals do. I guess I’d like to find out.” She held out her hand. “I’m Ema, by the way.”
“Hi Ema – I’m Joël,” I replied, taking her hand. It was warm and friendly, and I felt a definite frisson as our fingers touched, our skin almost crackling with energy.
“You’re American?”
“Yes. How did you know?” I laughed. “And you?”
“I’m from Germany.”
“I guessed.”
“You’re good at guessing, are you, Joël?”
I hesitated, not wanting to appear too big-headed. “I’m not bad,” I hedged.
She grinned. “Me, too! I guessed you might want to come with me tomorrow when I go up to visit this valley.”
Well, wasn’t this turning into an interesting encounter…
ooOoo
We set off after breakfast the next morning. I’d done a bit of travelling in my time, and making instant friends like this wasn’t particularly unusual for me. Ema acted like a nice enough girl. She was quite forward, which was fine, and yes, there was something very alluring about her, but…
But there was something. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on that unnerved me more than a little.
You see, she was right. I was good at guessing. I had what some people call a sixth sense. Often, I just seemed to know things. Growing up in the U.S., you keep quiet about things like that. In college, I kept myself to myself; not a loner, exactly, but I didn’t conform in the traditional sense. I didn’t fit into any of the stereotypes – at least, I didn’t think so. I just kind of did what I wanted to do and quietly got on with it.
So here I was, on vacation in the Slovak Republic, enjoying the mountains during my summer off. The High Tatras were tucked up at the northern end of the Carpathians on the Polish border. They were incredibly beautiful, and after the end of the Cold War, still not inundated with tourists. Most who were there were, in fact, Germans – probably because it was close and cheap.
I couldn’t criticise that – I was there for much the same reason. Service could be a bit poor, but that was another hangover from the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism.
Anyway, I’m digressing. I’d agreed to go with Ema today because I, too, was curious about the valley and its local legend. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was so fixated, but I wanted to see whether this fascinating myth had any truth to it.
Ema’s guide was called Stefan. Like us, a student about nineteen years old, but as Ema had said, he was working during his vacation to earn some extra cash to pay for his studies. He appeared to be a cheerful soul, and I could see he was quite taken with Ema – especially when she was wearing those shorts and that tight t-shirt she favoured. But I gathered that she hadn’t yet told him she actually wanted to go inside the valley.
This was going to be interesting…
Our journey started with a short bus ride, followed by three hours of hiking – gentle at first, but becoming more challenging as we made our way up through the lower coniferous forests to the higher altitudes. By lunchtime, the terrain had opened up, and we stopped at one of the welcoming mountain huts for a filling serving of the popular and tasty local goulash.
Before we continued, Stefan spoke to some of the other guides who were there, and though we didn’t understand the language, we realised something was up as they all went quiet when he explained where we were heading. A deal of urgent whispering ensued with frequent shaking of heads, but eventually, the others individually clapped Stefan on his shoulder as we left. It was like they were saying goodbye to him for the last time. He didn’t look very happy at all as we set off up a rarely used trail.
It was about another hour’s trek to the valley, the trees becoming more and more sparse as we climbed. I trailed behind Stefan and Ema as I listened to them arguing in German. Following our lunch stop, Stefan was clearly having second thoughts about our trip, and it was interesting to see how he was reacting. It also made me think more clearly about my own motivations. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
My little sixth sense bell was quietly dinging in the background, though unhelpfully without any useful detail. But equally, I could feel something continuing to pull me along on this little adventure, though I couldn’t quite work out what it was. It was almost as if I was being compelled to keep going even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to anymore.
Whatever my misgivings, I sensed it was too late now. And so, finally, we arrived at our destination. The entrance to the valley was extremely narrow and uncharacteristically dark – almost forbidding, especially as it was still only mid-afternoon with the sun high and bright in the sky. The interior of the valley appeared densely forested, which I hadn’t expected at this altitude – clearly, there was some micro-climate going on in which flora could thrive.
Stefan was now looking positively frightened. Ema spoke to him persuasively, and a heated argument with gesticulations followed in which Stefan said ‘nein’ a lot. Ema tried to give him some money, but he shoved it back at her. Clearly, we were at an impasse.
She turned to me and shrugged. “He doesn’t want to go in.”
I shivered. “I’m not sure I do, either,” I admitted. The valley looked distinctly unfriendly.
“Oh, come on. We’ve already walked all this way. It’s just a valley.”
“Are you sure?” I replied warily.
She rolled her eyes in exasperation. I could see her thinking of how to persuade me. She pursed her lips.
“Well, I will if you will,” she said finally. It was like a challenge; a dare, if you like. I still hesitated.
“Oh, come on!” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling. “Let’s go and see. I want to find out if it’s true!”
Short of bodily picking her up and dumping her on the ground, I didn’t think I could stop her. And, to be honest, I did still want to see what was in there.
With some misgivings, I allowed her to pull me in.
What was it they said about curiosity and the cat?
ooOoo
Stefan had his thumbs hooked through the straps of his rucksack as he stood watching us walk tentatively through the valley’s opening. The trees rustled in agitation, giving me an uncomfortable sense that we were being examined and evaluated as we progressed. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
What were we doing? I asked myself with more than a hint of apprehension. My heart was thumping erratically, and I could feel sweat breaking out on my skin.
The dim trail that remained was exceedingly narrow, and our progress along the floor of the valley was taking much longer than I’d anticipated. The wind began to pick up, and the trees moved in a disquieting manner, their rustling branches seeming to be talking to each other.
My sense of foreboding increased.
Ema was walking with an assurance that I found alarming – it was as if she knew exactly where she was going. She began striding ahead at an increasingly faster pace, and I struggled to keep up.
“Hey. Hey, Ema, what are you doing? Why are you walking so quickly? Have you been here before?” I yelled questioningly at her disappearing back.
I didn’t know if it was the wind, but she showed no indication that she’d heard me and just kept moving at a pace I couldn’t match. By then, I was almost running in an effort to catch her, until I finally stumbled over a tree root and fell flat on my face. When I climbed to my feet, she’d completely disappeared from my sight. More than a little frightened now, I moved as quickly as I dared, desperately trying not to fall again.
When I finally caught up with her, I realised that I’d completely lost my bearings; the wind had suddenly died, and the trees all around us had become remarkably still. Ema was standing in front of the largest oak I’d ever seen. With her hands clasped together, she was looking up at something. Looking up almost beseechingly.
She was speaking in a language I didn’t recognise. And yet, somehow, I could understand the words.
“I’ve brought you another one, Eliška,” she said. “A strong one, this time.”
“Ema, what… what’s going on?” I said, my throat constricting. Fear threatened to overwhelm me.
Ema turned toward me, and the look of desolation in her eyes shocked me.
“I’m sorry, Joël, I truly am.”
“What? Why are you sorry? What, what have you done…?”
She was crying now, wet tears rolling slowly down her freckled face.
“We need… someone. We need… we need a… a sacrifice,” she whispered.
My mouth opened in shock. A sacrifice?
And it was then that I realised what day it was. I should have known! Today was the longest day of the year; today was the summer solstice.
In the days of old, it was the eve when ritual offerings were made to the gods.
ooOoo
Without warning, I experienced an overwhelming dizziness as something – I didn’t know what – flooded over me. It was like being swamped by a wave of hate. My mind was in complete turmoil. I could feel hostility and overpowering rage all around me.
Something, someone, was in my mind. They were in pain – so much pain! And I could feel it! Feel it saturating my bones. Holding my head in my hands, I collapsed onto the floor and moaned at the invasion in my head.
There was misery, and loathing, and terror, all fighting for control in this maelstrom of emotion. Despair and anguish battled with anger. And hidden behind all of those swirling sensations, I also sensed shame and humiliation.
Images started to flit through my mind; I saw two girls in a woodland glade playing in water, laughing and splashing. There was a feeling of contentment and happiness emanating from the sisters.
How did I know they were sisters?
The vision changed, and suddenly, there were men in the glade with them. Muscled warriors clad in leather and wool vests, armed with swords and axes.
These are not Romans, I thought, inconsequentially.
“Of course not.” It was a girl’s voice, derisive and mocking. And inside my head. “The Romans never made it this far. These were mercenaries from the east.”
The girls struggled and started screaming as they were hoisted out of the water by the invaders. I desperately wanted to look away when I saw what was happening, but I was not allowed to close my eyes to this. Their screams echoed and bounced around the inside of my skull as the images played out in my head.
How could they! I thought miserably, as I was forced to watch the horror taking place before me. What monsters these men were, to do what they did to these young girls!
After, the husks of what they had once been were simply left. They lay in the grass, beaten senseless and ravaged beyond my wildest imagining. Their blood was everywhere, seeping from deep, deliberately inflicted wounds; skin and muscle torn, bones broken, internal injuries, haemorrhaging, and I didn’t want to know what else.
Now I understood the frenzy of emotions I had experienced. But surely, they couldn’t possibly have survived after all of that?
Another picture invaded my consciousness. This time, a girl, no more than sixteen. She was deep in shadow, surrounded by darkness. It was an image from a horror show; emaciated, eyes shrunken in their sockets, desolation etched on the young face. Covered in cuts, dried skin hung from her narrow, immature frame. The picture morphed in my mind, and the same girl now had skin roughened and textured like the bark of a tree, furrowed, scaly, peeling, and her limbs had mutated into branches, tough, sinewy extensions that whipped and groaned in the wind…
“See what became of me!” The voice whispered.
Oh, my God! Was I going insane?
Other images flashed across my eyes; I could see the intruders now, each of them dying a shocking death following their chilling assault upon the girls.
Now what was I seeing?
“This was their fate, after,” said the voice.
I was shaken as I saw the diabolical end that awaited each of them; two inexplicably attacked one another and died from their wounds before they had even left the valley. On their journey home, a rider unaccountably fell from his horse into a river and appeared to be wrestling with a malevolent, watery Doppelgänger before drowning. Another disembowelled himself with a knife and died in agony. The last made it to an inn before he struck out his own eyes with a table fork, before cutting his throat.
You did this? I found myself asking.
“They did it to themselves”, said the disembodied voice. “They were killers hired by my jealous uncle – by my own flesh and blood! But they didn’t understand the consequences. This is the fate of those who come to my valley without invitation.”
The confusion in my head reached a crescendo.
But I was invited! I thought desperately. I haven’t done anything – I didn’t do these sickening things!
ooOoo
Through the frenzy in my head, I heard another voice – Ema’s voice.
“Can you feel it, Eliška – can you sense him? He’s one of us. I can feel it in his blood, in his seed! He is Draoi! He is as we once were!”
The maelstrom eased slightly. I could perceive the uncertainty in the other one – in this Eliška – the one who exuded all the loathing and fury. She was listening, reacting…
“Maybe he can help us, Eliška. Help us break the cycle of our fate. We don’t need to take him like we did the others. The ones who didn’t understand. The ones who only desired to take from us. This one has a power that might ease your pain!”
There was so much anger emanating from the presence of the other that it took a while for me to feel it ebb. But then I got a sense of myself again, and took a deep breath. That breath was the last thing I could remember as I fell into a dark slumber, my fitful sleep punctuated by nightmares that made me cry out in terror.
ooOoo
When I woke, the sun had set, and darkness surrounded me. I was lying on the ground, and I had a terrible thirst. A cup carved from horn was handed to me, and I drank deeply without thinking. I sighed with contentment as the cool, fresh water refreshed my parched throat. When I looked up, I saw Ema sitting cross-legged in front of me, her head bowed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Groggily, I sat up. Looking at her, I tried to process what had happened.
Who are you? I thought. What are you?
I didn’t speak aloud. Somehow, I knew she could read my thoughts. She answered indirectly.
“She is my sister,” she said. “My younger sister. She was barely a woman when the men came and – and did what they did to us.”
As she said the words, I saw once again what I had been shown earlier. I saw the terror, the pain they inflicted. I felt it and shivered.
“We were Bandorai – you understand? Druids. But we were young and hadn’t much training. In our desperation, we invoked magic that had consequences we didn’t understand. In our confusion and fear, we chose different paths. Eliška was younger and less able to control her power.”
Ema swallowed, struggling to control her emotions.
“Eliška’s lifeforce couldn’t remain in her body – both were too damaged, and neither could sustain the other. What remained soaked into the rock, merged with the living wood, and flowed into the water. The rocks, the trees, and the water – they and she are one now.”
Tears trickled down Ema’s cheeks as she spoke.
“That is the price she paid. Now she is trapped within the limits of the oak groves that grow in this valley.”
Ema stopped speaking for a few moments to look at me. I was speechless, struggling to absorb what she was saying. It sounded like complete fantasy, yet in my mind. I knew that everything she said was true.
Ema sighed. “My fate was luckier. I was older and knew more than my sister. I took a different route. My body survived – damaged, but able to repair itself. There is magic here, in this valley. The rocks, the trees, the water – they are all full of it. But what was seen that day turned this sanctuary from a place of wonder into something rotten and full of darkness. The crimes committed against us – the old oaks felt this and mutinied. They wanted blood.
“You see, the magic we invoked was so powerful that neither of us can die. Yet, for my sister, it is a fate worse than death. And what she feels, I feel. The pain, the terror, the shame – everything. But my sister and I are also bound to each other, and if I leave here for long, she dwindles.”
“She cannot die, but she needs – sustenance. The oaks demand it. We took the blood of the monsters that did this to us, and now, we must continue to take blood when – when it is available.”
She looked up at me and smiled sorrowfully.
“I trap their body, and my sister traps their minds.”
There was desolation in her voice now.
“You’ve seen her. My sister is a monster. She devours the lifeforce of those unwary enough to wander into this valley, or of those I…”
She struggled to finish her sentence.
“Of those you lure here?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I, too, am a monster,” her voice quivered. “I know it, and today I hoped for the lives of two strong young men to help sustain my sister and, ultimately, myself for another year.”
She sniffed. “Adagetes Andon,” she said. She saw my baffled look. “It is a phrase from the language we spoke at the time. It means ‘The Monster Within.’”
I swallowed.
“And what you said earlier – when you were in my head. You think I can… help… somehow?” I didn’t want to think about how that might happen. I was still remembering what she’d said about me being a sacrifice.
“Yes. I think it’s possible that you might be able to free us. Do you know what you are? Can you feel the strength inside yourself? There is a power in you – can you not feel it? You have druid blood flowing in your veins.”
“How… how did you know?”
“You are aware of it?”
“My – my parents were Welsh – from Britain. They lived on the island of Anglesey and were proud of their Celtic roots. My mother always told me I had the blood in me. I – I’ve always known things…”
It was the first time I’d admitted this to anyone – other than my parents.
Ema was nodding. “There is a magic we are aware of. We can take some of your blood, and – and some of your seed, and use it to release us.”
There was a sadness in her as she said this, and I nervously swallowed again.
“Do I have a choice?”
She contemplated me for a long moment, then bowed her head in shame. “We were not always monsters, Joël. Yes – yes, you have a choice.”
“And if I choose not to help?”
She sighed. “Stefan waits by the entrance to the valley. He’s a good boy and hopes to see us return from our ill-considered expedition, though he is not very hopeful. If you go to him, he will guide you back to the town below.”
Now it was my turn to pause. My heart was pounding inside my chest, a reminder of the life force that defined my very being.
All of a sudden, it felt very fragile and vulnerable.
I took a deep breath. “And if I agree to help – what then?”
“The timing is fortuitous,” she said. “The enchantment must be completed before morning on the night following the summer solstice. If it works, Eliška and I will finally be free,” she said. I was astounded to see the desolation in her eyes. “And I will say goodbye to my dear sister.”
“What – what do you mean?”
“Eliška is too far gone to ever fully return. She will be released from her fate, but she has no body to return to. She will be free at last, and she will finally be at peace. After all this time, it is a blessing, and that is enough.”
“And you?”
She smiled sadly. “Me? I have been tethered to this valley for over two millennia. And I will be free to leave here, should I choose. And one day soon – when it is my time – I, too, will die.”
For a moment, I was totally at a loss for words. Finally, I managed to utter what I was thinking.
“Is – is there no other way?”
She began to shake her head, hesitated, and then looked me directly in the eye.
“There is one other possibility, yes. A way that could allow both of us to continue existing. For me, the price is of no consequence, but – but it would cost you dear.” She shook her head. “No. It is too much to ask.”
“Tell me!” I insisted.
“You don’t know what you are saying! You are mortal, yes? And you enjoy your life – this I can see. But you would have to give that up. Give up your body and everything that you are. Are you really prepared to do that? To do that for a – for a monster?”
I looked at her desperately.
“I – I do not know,” I confessed.
“You do not have long to make up your mind.” She shook her head. “But I will leave you for a few minutes so you can think about it. I will wait by the small lake you can see through those trees…” she pointed with her finger, “…for your decision. If you decide to go ahead, you, too, will become part of this valley. And once done, it cannot be undone.”
She regarded me sorrowfully.
“Consider your options carefully, Joël.”
Oh my…
ooOoo
This was the most important decision of my brief life.
And yet, in some ways, it was the easiest.
It’s not often one meets a 2,000-year-old monster whilst on vacation.
She’s a girl, Joël. Just a girl – correction, they’re both just girls who endured a terrible fate. And because of my blood, my Celtic origins, I have the ability – the option – of helping them.
I had thought my life was over. And now they were offering me a choice.
But, I realised, it wasn’t really a choice, was it? After all, what kind of a person would I be if I chose not to help?
I doubted I could live with it.
Well, then…
With a sense of unreality, I stood and quietly walked towards the small lake where I could see Ema crouching by the small fire she’d made.
She was hidden in shadow, but I could just make out that she was stirring something in a wooden bowl.
As I approached, I coughed to gain her attention. She turned her head towards me.
“I am ready,” I said. My voice was unsteady.
When she rose to face me, I drew in a deep breath. She was naked.
She was naked. And she was breathtaking. She shimmered!
“So, you decided to come, Joël? To throw away your life?”
“No,” I replied. “Not to throw away my life. I came to release you from your pain. To set you and your sister free.”
“Are you sure? There is no going back.”
I nodded.
For a moment, her gaze was so intense, it was as if she were looking into my very soul. Then she simply dipped her head in acknowledgement.
“Very well, Joël. First, I want you to remove your clothes.”
She said it matter-of-factly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Swallowing, I did as she instructed, and for some unknown reason – habit, I suppose – I carefully folded each item and placed it in a pile to one side.
I thought it unlikely I would need them again, and the very thought was disturbing, despite my decision.
“Now drink this.” She handed me the bowl, which contained a dark, viscous fluid.
“What is it?”
She sighed. “It is something I prepared for you. Just in case…”
I took a sniff. Whatever it was, it smelt old. I closed my eyes and could visualise the sea, the ancient forests, the loam of a time long since departed.
“Drink it,” Ema instructed.
I took a sip. It tasted incredibly bitter, and as soon as the liquid hit my tongue, I sensed my body starting to change.
“All of it, Joël.”
I quickly downed the rest, grimacing at the taste. Several things were happening all at once; I felt lightheaded, but at the same time my senses became heightened – my hearing, sight, sense of smell – all were sending an incredible array of messages, bestowing a sharpened clarity that was breathtaking.
And yet…
And yet, my body was also becoming incredibly relaxed. I felt like I was sinking into the earth. I’d never been this calm, this tranquil!
Peripherally, I could see Ema standing with her legs apart and her arms raised, so that her body formed an ‘X’. She raised her head toward the sky and began to chant.
I couldn’t tell the exact words she was using, but I discerned that it was an ancient tongue and a primordial magic she was invoking.
When I looked up, I could see the moon, high above us. It wasn’t quite full, but it was unusually large and bright, and glittered preternaturally.
“You must lie with me, Joël.”
I smiled. In the state I was in, that sounded like a splendid idea. I stepped forward and put my arms around her.
Her body was lithe, strong.
“It’s important that you don’t resist,” she whispered as she took charge of me.
Don’t want to resist, I thought.
She was gentle, and as her hands roamed delicately over my body, her fingers making my skin tingle, she continued to chant words in her head, and even though I did not understand them, I had a sudden realisation that we weren’t alone.
Eliška had joined us. I could sense her presence inside my head, and could feel that she was wary, and frightened, and vulnerable.
Do not be afraid, Eliška – I will show you the way – I will look after you.
I realised it was Ema’s voice I could hear – also in my head – and she was reassuring her sister.
Then Ema’s mouth was on mine, and her hand was stroking my now very erect member, fondling, teasing, tantalising…
“We will be as one this night, Joël. We will join, and together we will ascend and become part of everything that surrounds us.”
Her hand continued to stroke, and it felt so good, and I was sure I could sense another hand – Eliška’s hand – joining in also, probing lower, delving between my buttocks, cupping, invading, and I thought I was close, and…
…and then I felt a sudden, sharp pain. I looked down, and Ema had a bone knife in her hand. Without knowing how, she’d made a long cut lengthways along the inside of each forearm, and my blood was trickling slowly, inexorably, out of me.
“Do not fret, Joël. Soon, you will not need this body, for I will help set you free.”
And I believed her, and I knew it would be okay, and I slipped my hand between her legs and felt her wetness and laughed.
Ema pulled my head to her breast, and I suckled, and inexplicably, I tasted the sweetness of a mother’s milk. I sucked harder, and my mouth filled with the sweet, nourishing liquor of life, which I thought more delightful than anything I’d ever sampled.
“Yes, Joël, that’s it – drink that which no child has ever savoured – take my gift inside yourself!”
Then she pushed me back onto the ground and squatted over me, straddling my head, and my lips found hers, and my tongue delved and dined, and I tasted that other essence of her. And like the liquid I had drunk earlier, I tasted the ancient loam of the forests and the salt of the primaeval sea from which we had once crawled.
“Feast!” she cried. “Feast on me! Feast on my core and feel my energy flow through you!”
Yes! I thought. I could absolutely feel her strength, her elan rousing from its slumber. It had lain dormant for so long and was now waking, rising all around us, filling everything with its vitality.
Almost in a rapture, I wrapped my lips around her engorged button, and she moaned, and her legs shook, and she threw her head back and screamed at the sky.
“Yes! Yes, make me cum, Joël!” She cried out again, and again and again, and then suddenly let loose with another flood of liquid that took me by surprise.
“Drink!” Ema crooned. “Drink from my font!”
And now it was a golden nectar that she released, and she drenched me with the acrid fluid, though to me it tasted divine, and I swallowed, and swallowed, and I was overwhelmed with the intimacy of the act, and, with my heightened emotions, I began to cry with absolutely no idea why. And my tears ran down my face and onto the earth where we lay.
I could have sworn I heard a sizzle as the droplets landed and mingled with the soil.
“Now, Joël – it is time! Enter me. Sink your hardness into my body and fill me with your seed!”
Ema spread her legs, and I climbed on top of her, and slipped into her saturated opening, thrusting deep inside her, pounding and pummelling her as she directed, and Ema screamed into the forest night, calling on the Celtic gods to witness the primaeval act we were carrying out, and to commend our debauched, reverential offerings.
And as I repeatedly plunged into her, I roared at her incredible heat and spurted – spurted like a fire hose, flooding her insides with my semen, and Eliška, Ema’s two-thousand-year-old sister, was there with us, and I was penetrating her, too, permeating her also with my seed – and I realised that we were now simply three complimentary parts of the same being, and the pain I had sensed in Eliška before had begun to dissipate, and her sense of despair was turning slowly, ever so slowly, to hope.
But Ema hadn’t finished. Her hand found my phallus, and she gently eased me out of her drenched, overflowing flower and positioned me lower down.
“Here, too,” she breathed.
I’d already emptied my sacs into her womb and should have been shrinking, but I wasn’t. I was still hard as an iron bar.
Drenched as we were in what felt like gallons of slippery fluids, entry was easy, the sensation enchanting, and Ema cried out as I plundered her last remaining opening. She wrapped her legs around me as I ravaged her hole, and her teeth bit down on my shoulder, breaking the skin, and I leaned my head back and bellowed, and Ema laughed a gleeful, almost maniacal laugh as I erupted again, discharging another monumental load inside her.
Still embedded inside her, I glanced down and could see all our liquids pooling together, flowing into the soil, slowly draining from our bodies, and for a fleeting moment, I was struck by an awful sadness. But then the sensation was gone, and I was instead filled with an incredible lightness and, as if I were in a dream state, I was rising upwards, away from the earth.
And somehow, inexplicably, I found myself in multiple places at the same time: deep in the lake with the fish and the algae, buried in the earth with the worms and centipedes, and high in the trees with the bats and birds, and when I looked down, I could see our bodies – all three of us – for somehow, Eliška was there as well – not just in spirit, but corporeally, too, creating an otherworldly, wraithlike ménage à trois, with multiple limbs interlocked in a lascivious, bacchanalian dénouement.
Real or not real? I didn’t know.
But as a finale, I thought it was pretty damned good, and a sense of contentment washed over me.
It had been a good life…
Except, I realised, it was not over.
And as we continued to meld, there was an energy, a vitality, that flowed from the very earth, from the depths, through the roots of the oaks that surrounded us. It surged through our core, pulsating, vibrating, saturating us with an indescribable power.
We came together, we three – we fused, mingled, amalgamated – whatever you wanted to call it, we merged in a crescendo that crackled, and I heard the crash of thunder, though the skies were clear. I could feel the magic, and as we reached harmony with the groaning trees and burbling water, we began to cross into the otherworld, and we were simply one infinite being, pulsing, vibrating, our lifeforce flowing outwards from our bodies in all directions, and…
And our spirits were suddenly liberated, and together we rose, twisting and swirling, combining in a wild vortex until I could feel myself laughing with the sudden sense of freedom.
And the healing began.
ooOoo
1,000 years later
An observer wouldn’t be able to see anything, for there was nothing to see – no human presence that could be detected in this delightful, hidden valley in the mountains.
But visitors enjoyed coming here because, if you listened carefully, you could hear laughter, both male and female, reverberating off the sides of the valley and between the sunlit rocks and trees. It was as if children were playing; playing and enjoying the fullness of life that could only come from existing in such a place.
It was said that three joyful spirits lived here, and legend had it that they had restored the peace and tranquillity that had been missing during a bleak and terrible period of darkness that history has chosen to forget.
ooOoo
