A strange interlude

Lux doesn’t know how much time has passed since she got out of the valley. It feels like she’s been walking for a long time. She just needs to rest. No – there’s something else she needs – someone else…

How did she get out of the Valley? She’s not sure, but she must have done – how else could she be here?

She isn’t sure at first where she’s going. She’s aware of walking barefoot on cool grass, approaching…a village that she half remembers. And there, at the edge, smoke rising from its forge-fires, is the smithy. And waiting at the smithy…

He turns to face her. His broad, powerful body, his weathered features bearing that mark of deep sorrow. He was expecting her, somehow. He takes her in his arms.

She’s safe. She made it. He’ll look after her now.

Now she’s naked, and he’s bending her over right there on the table. She’s wet and ready for him. His breath loud and hot in her ear as he enters her, his – his cock not as big as she thought. But the rough way he handles her does feel good somehow. “More,” she wants to plead, but she can’t even form that single word.

His pace picks up. His hands pinching her painfully – smaller hands, too, than he should have. She pants and gasps, feeling the pleasure rise; disappointment and a thrill of uncertainty as she feels him reach his own climax, still inside her. But then he’s ready to go again, and she’s so close now…

Days pass. It has to be days. How could they fuck so many times in less than a week? She’s lost count of her orgasms, of how many times he’s finished in her, of the loads she’s swallowed. Barely a word spoken between them in all that time.

She wonders if they’re going to have to get married. She’s not sure if she wants that. Maybe…? Any solid thought swims away from her before she can grasp it.

And sometimes, when she’s not looking straight at him, she sees him as…something else. Now as a svelte man with white skin just like hers, and a face she can’t make out; now he’s small and blue, with a comically big head. But when she looks at him properly, he’s there, as solid as ever.

Now she’s on her side, one leg propped over his broad shoulder, panting as he thrusts into her. Mechanical, strangely joyless. She can hear the rushing of the river nearby. “We’ve got different lives to live,” he tells her. “Whatever it is between us, it can’t last.”

He did say that. How long ago…? The river is getting louder – wait, what river? – and there’s the distant, insistent sound of a high-pitched voice shouting her name. Looking over, she sees that Willow is in the room with them now, watching sadly. How can that be? It’s like –

– this is –

– this is a dream –

Lux opens her eyes.

For a moment, a brief moment, the worlds of dream and waking are aligned; Lux is on her side, legs spread, making love – but it’s not with a rugged, soulful blacksmith. It’s –

The ugly stupid big blue face of a mite stares back at her, eyes scrunched up in a combination of fear and determined lust. Like a dog caught with forbidden scrap of food, he doesn’t stop, but starts thrusting faster, as if hoping to finish before she can act.

Two things happen almost at once. First, some flying object hits the mite in the back of the head, sending him off balance. Then Lux has drawn her legs in to her chest, and she plants a foot in the reeling mite’s face, and punts him as far away as she can.

In the next moment, the ground is gone from under her. She has time to realise she was perched at the top of a slope – now her scrambling movement sends her rolling back. Down a soft earthen bank, cold wet spray in her face –

She splashes into the river. Fully awake now, panicking – lost, disoriented. The current rushes her along. She tries to inhale, coughs, swallows water. Thrashes wildly until she rights herself, her head breaking the surface, to suck down **** breaths of much-needed air.

Something grabs her upraised hand – something too tiny to pull her out, but little by little it guides her to solid ground. Weakly she crawls up the bank; naked, shaking, coughing, soaking wet, and completely exhausted.