by Zack Archer
I focused on the ground ahead of me, doing my best to avoid falling into the water which was oily and slick, the vaporous, foul-smelling mist rising up from it.
I slipped only once and Liberty steadied me as we drew near to the woman’s plaintive screams.
We hauled ourselves up over a fallen tree and spotted the woman, lying in the water, up to her neck.
She was waving an arm and she appeared to be on the verge of drowning.
Vaulting forward, I balanced on the edge of a hillock. Liberty grabbed one of my arms to keep me from sliding into the water, and I reached the other one down, grasping the woman’s fingers. “I’ve got you.”
She was soaking wet, but I managed to pull her out onto relatively dry land where she rolled onto her side, coughing, hacking up a mouthful of tannin-colored water.
I knelt beside her and brushed the matted hair away from her fine-boned features. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, with raven-colored hair, and limbs that were long and delicate, like some kind of fairy-tale creature. She was wearing a long dress that was pressed tight against her body, revealing her pillowy breasts, which caused me to turn away.
“What’s your name?” Liberty asked.
“Aendora,” the woman said.
“I’m Liberty, and this is Quincy.”
The woman engineered a slight smile. “T-thank y-you. You s-saved me.”
“No worries,” I replied. “But next time I’d seriously consider going in another direction when you decide to do a little sightseeing.”
“I wasn’t seeing any sights,” Aendora said, elbowing herself up. “I was fleeing.”
“From what?”
Aendora shivered, the color draining from her face. “From the watcher, the Wench, the witch who keeps watch over this infernal place.”
I tensed, glancing in every direction, but everything looked the same. “Where is she?”
“Nowhere and everywhere.”
“How the hell did you get down here?” I asked.
“A hole in the ground opened up. I was with two of my friends and we fell through the hole and ended up here. That was two days ago,” Aendora said. “I saw nothing for the first several hours and then I heard a sound, the most beautiful sound you can imagine, and that’s when she came.”
Liberty’s eyebrows arched in curiosity. “She caught you?”
Aendora shook her head. “She trapped my friends, but I managed to flee into the swamp where I made myself small.”
Liberty and I shared a look. “Do you know the way out?” Aendora asked.
“We were hoping you might,” I said.
Aendora opened her mouth to respond when a sound built in the distance.
At first, it resembled the note you might hear when somebody blows through a bone whistle. Then it built in intensity and complexity, before shifting into a melody that was light, airy, and whimsical.
“We have to hurry!” Aendora said, grabbing my arm. “The Wench is coming!”
29
We hauled Aendora to her feet and began charting a course through the swamp, using the hillocks as launching pads.
Aendora guided us, claiming that there was a structure out in the mist where we could take shelter and hide from the Wench.
Faster we flew, listening to the sound of the beautiful music as it rolled over the water, carried by the wind. The notes had changed during our flight, becoming harsher and somehow darker, a pounding beat, like someone wailing away on a set of tom-tom drums.
“It’s up there!” Aendora said, pointing. “I can see it!”
“What is it?!” I asked.
“Shelter!” she replied.
Liberty grabbed Aendora’s left arm, and I took her right. We used the power of our MEM boots to spring across the swamp until we spotted the faintest outline of a structure, a hut.
The dwelling, what looked like a collection of wood and reeds lashed together with thick vines, was propped up at the backside of a larger spit of raised land, a small island.
The structure reminded me of a glorified duck blind and was so well concealed that if we hadn’t been positioned at the exact spot, we would likely have never seen it.
“I hid inside it yesterday,” Aendora said, catching her breath. “There’s enough room for all of us.”
We loped forward, hopping onto the raised spit of ground where Liberty grabbed what amounted to a rear door and pulled it open.
The interior of the sagging structure was surprisingly large, with a wooden ladder that led up through a hatch to a first floor, a circular space with a solid floor made from what looked like hand-cut boards.
We closed the hatch behind us, and I stumbled back, breathing in the warm and musky air.
There were crude shelves on the thatched walls that contained candles, pots of dried herbs, crystals, and dozens of multi-colored liquids in translucent containers along with what appeared to be pickled animals or…body parts.
Below these items were several benches made of woven reeds and covered by a stretched material that resembled animal skin. A hand came down on my shoulder and I jumped.
Glancing sideways, I spotted Aendora who was smiling and by God did she have a beautiful smile. “She uses this place to hunt sometimes I think.”
“Then why the hell are we here?” I asked.
“Because it’s probably the least likely spot she’d expect someone to hide,” Liberty answered.
I considered this and realized Liberty was probably right. If you’re a villain out tracking down a pack of unwary travelers, you’re probably not going to expect them to hide in your home away from home.
“Why don’t we just ambush her?” I asked. “Take the witch down once and for all?”
“Because we don’t know where she is,” Liberty said. “Once she reveals herself to us, we’ll deal with her.”
Nodding, I slumped against the far wall, peering up at Aendora and Liberty, who were standing side by side. I rubbed my eyes, still not believing any of the day’s events had actually happened. If you would’ve told me even a few hours earlier that I’d be marooned on some distant planet, in the company of two smoking-hot women, trying to save the universe while running from a fucking swamp witch, I would’ve said you were nuts. But there I was, struggling to make the best of an increasingly dire situation.
“So what’s your feat, Aendora?” I whispered.
“Pardon?”
“I’m not from around here, but based upon all that I’ve seen, everyone has their own unique power.”
She hesitated, then smiled. “I’m an Illuminator. One whose gift lies in brightening a dark path.”
“Well, you’ve sure brightened ours,” I said.
She blushed, and Liberty’s gaze pinched as if she was annoyed, or jealous.
Before I could ask what being an Illuminator meant, Aendora conjured up a wisp of fire at the end of her index finger. She touched it to some of the herbs and a few of the candles, and the inside of the hut was soon suffused with a warm glow and the smell of incense.
My eyes burned for an instant, and then I noticed what looked like spores or motes of dust clouding the air.
I swatted at them, but the spores flew into my open mouth and I gagged, coughing.
Liberty and Aendora began laughing. Their mouths moved intermittently, no longer in synch with the words they were uttering. “Are you okay,” they asked.
“I’m fine,” I replied, trying to keep pace by talking faster. “I’m fine, fine, just super fine.”
Aendora moved past me, her body trailed by tendrils of light. She pointed at the multi-colored liquids in translucent containers. “This one’s for speeding up, and this one’s for slowing down, and this one helps with flight, and seeing two seconds into the future …”
She stopped on a glass bottle filled with violet liquid. “And this one can bring forth the dead.”
I wanted to ask how she knew.
How the fuck did she know that?
My mouth opened, but eve
rything that came out was garbled.
I closed my eyes, trying to focus, but I was unable to form a complete sentence.
Head in my hands, I took a liking to the ground only to see that the patterns in the floorboards were shifting, undulating, sweeping across the floor to meet the cross-hatching on the thatched walls that was oozing down.
My mind reeled.
Something was seriously wrong.
Glancing up, I saw Liberty and Aendora whispering, sharing a laugh as the incense swirled.
Liberty opened her mouth and Aendora blew a small cloud of incense into it. Then she did the same to me, and my mouth opened and closed like a dying fish.
I couldn’t get enough of the incense. It was sweeter than sugar.
Music soon filled the room, a pulsing rhythm that sounded like the backbeat of the swamp itself.
I felt feverish, but also elated, my body warm and sweat-slicked.
Instinctively, I moved to the rhythm, planting one foot on the ground, then the other, my hips swaying. I threw my head back and laughed and so did the women.
Liberty and Aendora then locked in an embrace, kissing each other hungrily.
Steam clouded the interior of the hut.
Fragments of the incense filled the air like snow flurries.
In the dim, hazy light, I watched Liberty disrobe and then pull Aendora’s dress up over her head.
I readily admit that everything you’re reading is filtered through my male gaze and that men have a habit of objectifying women’s bodies, but I can only relate what I saw. Aendora, who was standing naked a few feet away from me, was breathtaking, appearing less like a living thing and more like a statue carved from the finest marble.
She licked her lips and I traced the outline of her frame with my eyes, starting with the graceful way her hips accented her well-proportioned breasts.
The music throbbed as Aendora motioned for me to come to her. The steam was so hot that my hair was matted, my body slicked with oily sweat.
Aendora’s eyes were glowing and her face radiated passion and authority.
She reached out a hand and roughly began tugging my singlet down.
Then she licked the sweat from my chest and pulled the flexible singlet down, around my boots, and all the way off.
I was standing naked except for my boots and Aendora rose and smiled, whispering, “Leave them on. They’re better for thrusting.”
She laughed a glorious little laugh and then she took my head in her hands, the incense drifting all around us, and our lips met.
It was like kissing a live wire.
I wanted to pull away, but I couldn’t.
If you’ve ever been in a situation where you were operating on booze-soaked adrenaline, doing things that you knew, deep down in the backwaters of your mind, you shouldn’t be doing, that was what I was experiencing.
For some reason, I had serious reservations about the whole thing, but I was lost in the moment, tripping on incense, my hormones revving into overdrive.
Aendora bit my lip and then she reached down and grabbed my dick and slowly began working it back and forth.
Then she was on her knees, taking me in her mouth and I know this might offend the sensibilities of some, but the woman knew her way around a cock.
She had a way of swirling her tongue and tapping my balls that nearly made me explode in her mouth. I pulled out and she laid down on one of the benches and spread her legs.
Hands appeared from behind me, and it was Liberty.
She stroked my nipples and caressed my chest as Aendora commenced fingering herself. I turned around and kissed Liberty, and her mouth was hot and salty.
I ran my hands over her massive breasts and I flicked her nipples with the tip of my tongue.
With the dexterity of a gymnast, she lifted and wrapped a taut, muscular leg around me so that I could slip a finger in her. I explored her sopping inner wall, then she withdrew my finger and licked it. I reached down and rubbed her clit vigorously until she came convulsively.
My attention was arrested by Aendora’s moaning and I placed the head of my cock at the opening of her sex and worked it in slowly.
I pushed myself all the way into Aendora’s hot tunnel and began thrusting as Liberty reached around and sucked on my nipples while fingering my balls and asshole. Say what you will, the lady knew how to multitask.
I fucked Aendora with deep strokes in a slow, easy rhythm. She reached out and wrapped her arms around my shoulder and raised her slender ass off the bench, forcing me into her deeper and deeper, her breathing becoming heavier.
I picked up speed, Aendora urging me on.
We were moving in synch, like two worlds slamming into each other.
Aendora’s eyes rolled back, and I ran my hands over her damp body as she motioned for Liberty to assume a position next to her.
Liberty hesitated for a moment, her eager eyes straying my way as if she wanted me all to herself.
But we were trapped in what seemed like a beautiful, magical spell where we couldn’t control or contain our actions.
We were operating purely on instinct and physical lust.
Liberty crouched over the bench and so did Aendora, the two goddesses facing away from me, their asses elevated.
Rigid with pent-up energy, I plunged my manhood into Liberty first and she grabbed my hands and repositioned them around her breasts so we could more easily assume a doggie-style position.
Liberty was hot and tight and I began pounding her harder and harder. She begged me to pull her hair and smack her ass and I did, completely swept up by the moment.
Liberty wasn’t a small woman at all, she was nearly six feet tall and probably a hundred and fifty pounds of toned muscle. But I was able to use my boots to power down and then thrust powerfully into her while keeping my hands cupped under her glorious ass-cheeks and hips.
Her back arched and her body shook with her climax, and I kissed the middle of her back before turning my attention once again to Aendora’s inviting slit. I re-entered her and was working toward a climax of my own when I stopped mid-stroke.
There was a sound.
Not the music that was still echoing off the walls.
It was a tinny whine.
Barely audible at first, but growing louder by the second. It slowly snapped me out of my daze and I realized it was the tracking device. It was sounding. The others had found us!
I looked up and gazed at Aendora’s face.
It was…changing.
Swelling.
Pulsing.
And the floor?
It wasn’t covered by hand-cut boards anymore.
It was covered in bodies and lengths of sugar-white bone and flaps of what appeared to be yellow flesh!
Dozens of bodies in various states of decomposition.
What the fuck was going on?!
I realized that incense, the spores, and whatever fucking black magic was swirling around the interior of the hut had indeed been manipulating everything, distorting reality.
Snapped out of my zombified state, I was finally able to see things for what they truly were.
There was a peal of laughter.
Deep, guttural laughter.
I looked up and a change came over Aendora’s face.
I’m pretty sure there’s no amount of psychiatric drugs that will be able to erase from my memory what I saw next.
Aendora’s head lolled and a cadaverous grin tugged at her mouth.
My gaze swung back to Liberty as fear and confusion gripped her.
I watched, horrified, as Aendora’s face split apart to reveal another form, another creature hiding on the inside!
The new face shifted between an old crone, a nubile young woman, and what looked like some kind of alien jungle cat.
Immediately, I knew we were in the presence of the Wench!
30
The bitch had been wearing Aendora’s beautiful face like a mask the entire time!
And the
worst part, the very worst part, was that seconds earlier my johnson had been inside the loins of what appeared to be a centuries-old witch!
I was gonna need rubbing alcohol, gasoline, and canisters of napalm to get my dick clean after this!
The Wench rose up to her full and terrible height, all seven feet and several inches of her. She was still nude, her flesh shiny, gray, and leathery, like an old dead turtle. A long, green tongue flicked between jagged teeth. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“So, I guess we’re all done here,” I said, shrugging on my singlet.
“But I’m not finished yet,” the Wench said, grinning hugely, her tongue trembling like the segments on the end of a rattlesnake’s tail. “You didn’t satisfy me.”
“Lady, I’m pretty sure that’s impossible.”
“And why might that be?”
“Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? No offense, but you are one ugly bitch.”
WHACK!
The Wench whipped an arm that struck me in the side, launching my body through the roof of the hut.
I watched the swamp pass under my feet, and then I slammed down into the muck.
Levering myself up, I saw that the Wench had catapulted me half the length of a football field.
Groaning, I shot to my feet and surged through the soupy water, climbing up onto a hillock to see Liberty carving a hole through the side of the hut with her sword.
She burst out through the woven wall, running for her life.
The Wench vaulted through the roof of the structure, doing a pirouette before landing in the swamp directly between us.
She spun and summoned a long piece of red plasma that she threw like a javelin in my direction.
The air sizzled, and I ducked as the plasma sailed past, scorching my hair, but not doing any other damage.
Liberty pulled her sword around, screaming, which distracted the Wench. I rose up on the hillock and conjured up a ball of energy that I tossed like a fastball at the bitch’s back.
The energy ball struck the Wench just below her neck, the impact jarring the old hag.
The Wench doubled over, but soon regained her strength and turned.
Her face had changed once again.
