Celtic Warrior 02: The Crystal Cave

Bruede searched for someone very special, someone who would be the perfect bait to draw his Celtic warrior away from the sorceress. When he topped a rise in the forest, he spied a small cottage in a narrow valley below. A wisp of smoke curled out of a chimney. There was a small goat paddock behind the house and a vegetable garden to the side. It had all the makings for a small family unit. He sat and watched. After a while, a young girl opened the gate to the paddock and sprinkled some grain around for the goats. As soon as she disappeared, Bruede raced like a tornado to a tall oak behind the house.

He could smell them now; mother and daughter. A male must be nearby, but he couldn't find his odor. In a heart beat, he moved to the side of the circular house where the thatched roof nearly touched the ground. He crept away from the paddock side until he eased up to entry door. He held his hands over his mouth and mimicked the sound of a goat.

"Gretch, did you leave the gate open?" Mother stood up from sewing and clucked her tongue. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"I didn't, mama," daughter replied.

"Well I hear nanny outside the door. I'll get her."

Mother crossed the room and opened the door. When she stepped out, Bruede pulled the door shut, clutched her in one arm and clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Shhhhhh," he whispered. "Keep quiet and no harm will come to your daughter."

The woman's body went ridged. She gazed at Bruede with a look of terror. When her eyes locked on his, something strange came over her. The pupils of is cat like eyes dilated She felt like he reached inside her, caressed the tension and she became very calm. Her body relaxed and he removed his hand from her mouth.

"There, that's better," he said and smiled. He picked her up in his arms and carried her around to the oak tree in the back. Their eyes never left each other. He laid her in the soft grass and knelt by her side. He grabbed the top of her dress and began tearing until it split all the way down.

"What a pretty little body," he said. His breath started heaving in his massive chest. "Would you like me to make you feel very, very good?" He slipped one finger between the tiny slit between her thighs. She nodded her head.

"Tell me. Ask me to make you feel good." His finger started sliding in and out of her vagina. She moaned.

"Make...make me..." She struggled to speak as he drove his long finger deeper inside her. "Please...make me feel...good." Now the look on her face was anguish.

"Do you want me to fuck you?" She nodded her head. Bruede laughed.

He moved between her legs, pushed them open and leaned down lapping his tongue over her wet labia and across her clit. He rocked forward, bit her nipples and put his face a few inches away from hers. She gazed at her own reflection on the surface of his obsidian like eyes. With one powerful thrust of his hips, he drove his cock inside her. She was impaled by his insatiable lust as well as his huge cock.

It didn't take him long. He thought of the Celtic warrior and his whole body shuddered and sent an eruption of semen into the mother's sheath. She was barely conscious and shock had begun to set in.

He was so excited about taking the daughter hostage, he forgot his hunger. He stood up and dragged his dripping cock out of the woman. She collapsed in the grass with a far away look in her eyes. In a few heart beats, he stood at the door, quietly opened it and stepped in. The daughter looked up with wide eyes.

"Hello," she said. "Who are you?" Bruede smiled.

"My name is Bruede," he replied and bowed to her. "And I'm the fastest man alive." He patted himself on the chest. "And what would your name be?"

"I am Gretchen, but mother calls me Gretch."

"I believe Gretchen is the name of a beautiful princess I once knew."

"Really?"

"Absolutely, but she wasn't nearly as pretty as you." He sat down next to her.

"You're so big," she said looking him over.

"That's partly why I'm so fast. Would you like to see why they call me the fastest man alive?" She smiled.

"Okay." They went outside. Bruede knelt on the ground.

"Climb on my back," he said. "I'll give you the best view." He looked back at her and smiled.

"Come on. You won't want to miss this. Just wrap your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist." She didn't move so he sat down and turned her way.

"Okay, here's the deal. See that high hill over there? How long does it take you to walk over it?" She looked at the hill and cocked her head thinking about his question.

"I don't know. A long time."

"I'll bet you I can race over that hill before you can count to three. You can count to three can't you?"

"Yes," she said indignantly. "But I don't believe you can do it by the time I count to three."

"I can prove it. Climb on my back, start to count and I'll show you. Over the hill before you get to three."

Gretchen cautiously slipped her arms around his neck. Bruede gripped her legs and she wrapped them around his waist as best she could. He was so big, and her legs were so small.

"Ready?" He asked, looked back and grinned. Gretchen nodded. "Start to count."

"One..." Gretchen felt a sudden blast of wind through her hair. Everything was a blur. When she finally found her voice and said, "Two," Bruede came to a stop. She looked around.

"Wow," was all she could say.

"Now hold on tight."

He ran as fast as he could; down into the valley, over the next hill, through a forest of trees, leaping over a small stream and stopping only after he was far away from Gretchen's little cottage.

**********

"The secret to wielding the power of the Wyrd is internal silence," Lilli said as they sat sorting wild herbs that Lilli collected earlier in the day.

"Do you hear the chattering voice that continuously babbles in the back of your head?"

"Yes, I guess," Ulrike replied. "Isn't that normal?"

"Of course it's normal for a normal person, but if you want to rest in the spirit's full glory, you can't be normal. And trust me, my love, you are not normal." Lilli leaned in and kissed her. "Silencing that voice is the beginning of wisdom. Silencing that voice is the first step in becoming a true warrior."

"You don't think I'm a true warrior?"

"Ulrike, dear one, you are an incredible warrior. The kind of warrioring I'm talking about is the next level up. It's called spiritual warrioring. It's becoming a warrior of the Wyrd."

Lilli set her work down and looked at Ulrike. Her eye lids fluttered for a moment before they closed. She took a deep, slow breath. As she exhaled, she raised her hands up as if she were holding a large ball. When she had emptied her breath, her eyes flew open and she thrust her hands out toward Ulrike. The Celtic warrior gasped as she slid backwards and fell off her stool. She sat where she landed with her mouth open. She had never seen this look in Lilli's eyes; bottomless and empty.

Lilli jerked with a sudden deep breath, her eyes softened and then she focused on Ulrike. After a few moments, she giggled.

"I didn't break you, did I?"

Ulrike couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She was stunned. Lillie started laughing, went to Ulrike and knelt beside her.

"It takes wisdom to wield power, but when it's needed for the greater good, there is nothing like being a channel for pure spirit. You've mastered the skills of the iron sword, but a spiritual warrior's first enemy is herself. That takes a skill you will also master."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Lilli," Ulrike said sitting back on her stool. "But I trust you with all my heart and soul." Lilli started in again sorting the herbs.

"When a spiritual warrior battles herself, she finds four natural enemies. Her first enemy is fear. When fear is vanquished, as it has been for you, a spiritual warrior finds power. That you have in abundance, but it also becomes the second enemy. Power can corrupt a warrior making you feel you can do anything. It too must be vanquished. When that enemy has been beaten, a spiritual warrior finds clarity. Everything becomes clear and undisguised. A warrior becomes a seer. But clarity becomes the third enemy. Clarity gives a warrior a false sense of certainty. When it has been beaten back, the spiritual warrior rests in eternity and all that remains for a warrior to battle is old age."

"Which enemy do you battle, Lilli?"

"All of them," she said and smiled. "Every day is a new opportunity for the four natural enemies of a warrior to raise their pesky heads. Once you've soundly beaten one, you are free, but it still tests you from time to time. It demands constant vigilance. Finally, death taps you on the shoulder, and if you are a spiritual warrior, it has to drag you kicking and screaming out of this world."

"What happens when you are not a warrior and death taps you on the shoulder?"

"For most people, by the time they get to the end of their life, they've used themselves up in useless endeavors. They welcome death and follow without resistance."

Lilli tied up each bundle of herbs and hung them from different places around the dwelling.

"It's time we do something about this poor girl," she said gesturing toward the comatose young woman. "I think I better go after her soul and bring it home, or she isn't going to survive much longer."

"What do we do?" Ulrike stood up and joined Lilli at the bedside where the girl lay.

"You are going to beat my little drum hanging on that beam branch." Ulrike had seen the drum but never question Lilli as to its use. "Just a nice steady beat; nothing fancy; boom, boom, boom."

"Okay," Ulrike replied. "I can do that."

"I am going to journey into the other world and see if the spirits can help locate her soul."

Ulrike beat the drum. It was a steady, monotonous thumping that created a vibration throughout her body. Lilli hovered back and forth over the girl dragging her finger tips up and down her body. Her eyes were closed and her nude body swayed with a serpentine rhythm. She sang a faint one-note vocal tome that rose up and down the scale mirroring the movement of her body. Ulrike was entranced.

Suddenly Lilli's hands made the motion of grabbing something. She clutched her cupped hands to her heart. She quickly knelt beside the girl and held them over the young woman's chest.

"Welcome home," she whispered and blew through her fingers into the girl.

"Help me, "she said to Ulrike. Ulrike stopped drumming and put the drum aside. She ran to Lilli.

"Raise her up."

Ulrike reached behind the girl and lift her shoulders until she was in an upright position. Lilli leaned over her, placed her hands on the top of her head, and blew one long breath into her.

The girl gasped and her eyes flew open. She looked straight ahead. If she was aware of Lilli and Ulrike, she gave them no notice. Her eyes widen with a look of terror, and she screamed one, long deafening outcry from the bottom of her newly returned soul.

**********

Bruede needed to feed. Gretchen had started to cry, so he held her in his arms. Finally she had fallen asleep. When he came upon another small cottage in the forest, he found a wide crook high in a tree and laid her down. It was too high for her to escape, and with any luck, she would sleep until her had satisfied his needs.

He crept up to the oaken door and listened. A man laughed and a woman giggled. Perfect; feed and fuck. He knocked on the door.

"Who goes there?" The man's voice boomed out.

"A weary traveler lost in the forest."

"There's a trail next to the big oak," the man said. "Good luck."

Bruede took a few steps back and slammed himself into the door ripping it off its iron hinges. The woman screamed and the man jumped back reaching for a sword. He wasn't fast enough. The veldtae leapt upon him and tore his throat out in one swift movement. He lowered the twitching body to the floor and sucked the blood into his belly until the twitching and the blood flow stopped. The woman's screaming, however continued. Bruede stood and wiped his mouth.

"Almost finished," he said and smiled. "Don't go anywhere. You and I are going to have some fun."

He knelt back down, drove his fingers into the man's chest and ripped it open exposing the stilled heart. He cupped his hand around the warm, bloody organ and jerked it free from the body. He looked at the woman as he ate. She couldn't scream any more. Her voice was silenced in extreme terror. Her eyes were locked onto the dark crystals set on each side of his nose. When he finished, he looked around, saw a large bowel of water and rinsed his hands and face.

"Now, as I was saying, you and I are going to have a little fun."

She tried to back away but she was up against the wall with no where to go. In half a heart beat, he was standing next to her, face to face. His eyes dilated and the poor woman became lost in his gaze.

"Relax," he whispered. "I promise you are going to feel very, very good. Look at this." He pulled aside his loin cloth exposing his monstrous cock. She glanced down and shook her head from side to side with a whimper.

"Please...no," she mumbled. Bruede reached up, grabbed the top of her dress and ripped it off. She was naked now and he encircled her with his arms and pulled her against his massive, hairy chest. She started to cry, and he grabbed a handful of hair, pulled her head back forcing her to look into his eyes. They stood like that for several long moments until her trembling and tears ceased.

"Now ask me to fuck you," he whispered. She tried to move her mouth but nothing came out. He slid one hand down the front of their bodies, took his cock in his hand and rubbed the big purple head between her legs.

"Say it. Please fuck me."

"Please..." was all that came out as she shook her head side ways.

"Say it." His eyes drilled into her. All the voices in her head became silent except the words he spoke.

"Please...fuck me." She barely mumbled.

"No, no, no; say it like you mean it. Feel this cock. Just imagine it sliding in and out of the pretty little Celtic cunt." He took her hand and forced her to wrap her fingers around it. She stroked it a few times and looked down at it. Her tiny hand was barely able to encircle its girth.

"Please," she said in a stronger voice and squeezed his cock. "Fuck me."

"Now I never thought you would ask. I'd just love to fuck you. Lie down and spread those pretty legs. Let me have a look at your fuck hole." She did as he commanded. Bruede examined her, parting her labia with his fingers. He pushed one finger inside her.

"Very pretty," he said, crawled between her legs, guided his cock to the open slit and drove it in with one jerk of his hips. She grunted and winced with pain. He pulled her legs up and around his hips. He started to slowly slide his cock in and out of her.

"Move your hips," he said. "Fuck me." She obeyed, and as she humped against him, she closed her eyes and groaned each time his cock hit the bottom of her vagina.

He started fucking her faster, and when he was ready to release his seed, he thought of the Celtic warrior. It erupted out of him like a volcano unleashing it lava. He fell forward, sank his teeth into her neck and began sucking her blood as the semen spurted out of his cock and balls filling her. Before the last spurt convulsed out of him, Bruede took a deep, fatal bite of her throat severing the main artery and gorged himself on the blood that pumped into his mouth. Her soul, however had departed long before her heart stopped beating.

**********

Lilli cradled the young girl in her arms and gently rocked. She hummed a soft, sweet melody as any mother would do for a child awakened from a very bad dream. Ulrike watched the seer with admiration and love. She too at times felt lost in a bad dream. If it weren't for finding Lilli and discovering the love of her life, she was certain she'd have the same haunted look in her eyes that still clung to this young girl.

"Shhh," whispered Lilli as she sang. "Everything is going to be okay now. I'll see that you get home to your family. If we can't find them, you'll always have a home right here." The girl began to cry and Ulrike joined them on the pallet and placed a hand on her shoulders.

"Let me fix your hair," she said and took Lilli's ivory comb. She gently worked the knots out of her hair and smiled across the girl's shoulder at Lilli.

She mouthed the words, "I love you," and Lilli puckered a silent kiss to her.

"What should we call you, child?" Lilli asked. The girl snuggled her face against Lilli's comforting bosom.

"Mina," she said barely audible.

"Mina. What a lovely name," Lilli said. "I am Lilli and this is Ulrike." She turned and looked at Ulrike and tried to smile. Ulrike grinned and kissed her cheek.

"Do you remember what happened to you?"

The small, frail young woman shook her head. Her many days in a coma and the shock of surviving an attack from a veldtea made her look more vulnerable and younger than she was.

"I am going out for a while," said Lilli to the both of them. "Ulrike will give you some tea and a little later a nice, hot bowl of soup."

Ulrike didn't miss the dark look in Lilli's eyes. It was very much like the look when Lilli demonstrated her inexplicable power and knocked the warrior off her stool. Just as Lilli started for the door, Ulrike stopped her.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't worry," Lilli replied and took Uli in her arms. "I'll be back soon." She pressed her soft lips against Ulrike's mouth and held the embrace. Ulrike's heart began to pound. More out of fear for what ever Lilli was up to, and partly because holding her love this close always sparked the constant flame that burned inside her.

"I love you so much," Uli whispered.

"We are one my dearest. Stay inside while I'm gone." Lilli kissed her quickly, pulled a wool wrap around her shoulders and left the cliff side dwelling. The morning odors of the forest were crisp, and Lilli could feel fall on its way. A light sheen of dew covered everything. The forest birds were in full song.

She tuned all her senses to this teaming world around her. Without any conscious thought, she let the lines of the Wyrd pull her and she soared across the tree tops. The world below her was breath taking, and no matter how often she travelled along the way of the Wyrd, she was always exhilarated and grateful that the spirit granted her this life.

After soaring a long distance, her journey slowed and Lilli found what she was looking for. Crotched under a large black oak tree sat Bruede and his child hostage. Lilli floated out of the sky so quietly, the veldtae failed to sense her arrival. It was a perfect entrance for Lilli, who knew Bruede prided himself in his acute sensory abilities.

"Hello, Bruede," Lilli said and he jumped with a start and fell on his back. Lilli laughed, only to add insult to his injured pride. After a moment of glaring at her with a look of anger and shock, he softened and smiled.

"Well, well, if it isn't father's little toy. What an honor. Are you the advance party come to invite us to your cozy little love nest? Or would you finally like to surrender that supple body to someone who really knows how to fuck?"

Hardly Bruede; I'm here to give you fair warning. The Wyrd is spinning a web through you that..."

"The Wyrd," he cut her off. "Father may believe in that nonsense, but your twisted Druid ways don't scare me."

Lilli didn't respond right away. As they spoke the young girl awakened and sat up. The seer walked past Bruede and knelt next to the girl. He started to reach for Lilli and she held her hand up but kept her eyes on the girl. Bruede stopped and grit his teeth.

"What's your name, child?"

"Her name is Gretchen!" He muttered through his clenched teeth. "Get away from her."