Princess Tatjana & Her Magic Carpet

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Bohemia, there lived a beautiful princess who was known far and wide as 'lovely Tatjana, the Enchantress.' So legendary did her beauty and sensuality become that in rural districts the slang for masturbation among young adolescents was phrased as 'dreaming of Tatjana.'

In some of the more conservative provinces, the very name 'Tatjana' became synonymous with 'Jezebel' from the Bible. An attempt to restrict her movements among some of the district's jealous women, whose husbands had been found with some of Tatjana's 'forbidden art portraits,' had long been unsuccessful. When good King Wencelas died, however, he was no longer able to protect his distant niece Tatjana, and she was forced, albeit unjustly, to go into exile.

One day during the month of June, Tatjana and her twelve servants were traveling through the forests near the borders of Germany and Austria. As evening approached, the group began to look for an area to pitch their colorful royal tents.

Tatjana and her trusted maidservant Suzanne decided to explore the area, looking for a pond or lake where they might be able to bathe and wash their clothes.

It was a warm evening, and the pink, red and orange hues of the setting sun were splashed brilliantly against the azure sky.

As the two young maidens walked through the dark forest, they pointed out to one another the beautiful flowers blossoming between the tall trees.

"Look at those lovely violets!" shouted Suzanne, running over to a deep patch of purple and yellow beneath the giant oaks.

"There's a wild rose bush over there, do you see it?" asked Tatjana, pointing to another bright patch of red in the distance. "Let's take some roses back to the tents," she suggested, striding toward the ruby blossoms.

"Aren't they amazing?"she asked Suzanne, as she caressed the tender buds with her delicate, long fingers. But Suzanne was not there. "Suzanne? Suzanne?" Tatjana called. No answer.

Not far away, she heard the sound of footsteps and movement. Following it, she came to a clearing in the woods.

There was suddenly a lot of sand, and as the trees receded into the background, Tatjana came upon a lake, the crystal blue color of which she had never seen before.

Looking into the lake from the sandy shore, Tatjana was in awe at what looked like a giant mirror beneath the pink and azure sky. Not far from the water, she spied a strange looking flower bending gently in the breeze. "O, a narcissus," she cried, running over to it........

PART TWO

Just then, Suzanne came through the clearing in the woods and joined Tatjana on the shore of the lake.

"Suzanne, there you are! Look at this incredible lake and this marvelous narcissus!"

"Yes, it's lovely, Your Highness, but I'm frightened by this place," replied Suzanne, "There are strange sounds in the forest. There is a strange light in the sky. I feel the presence of some dark force. I don't believe we're safe here, Princess Tatjana."

"O, what nonsense, Suzanne, why...this place is entirely enchanting. And it's so peaceful.......

...Suzanne, do you remember how the Hymn to Demeter opens? The one we all learned when we were little girls?"

"Why, yes, Your Highness, I think it goes something like this...let's see, now.....Kore, Demeter's daughter, was with her girlfriends by the ocean picking flowers....and....

'She was playing far from Demeter, lady of the harvest who reaps with a golden sickle, gathering flowers with the daughters of Ocean, roses and crocus and beautiful violets, iris, hyacinths, and the narcissus.

'Earth brought forth the narcissus as a wonderful lure for the blossoming girl according to Zeus's plan to please Hades, who receives all. It was an object of awe for all to see, both the immortal gods and mortal men.

'And from its roots grew a hundred heads, smelling a smell so sweet that the whole broad sky above and all the earth laughed and the salty swell of the sea. The girl was amazed and stretched out both her hands to take the marvelous bauble' [from 'The Homeric Hymn to Demeter']

...and of course, you know the rest, Your Highness."

"Yes, that's it. O how I love that story! I think of it each time I see a narcissus. Is this one not really something unique? Why, I think it almost has a hundred petals too. Let's take a closer look."

As both of them drew closer to the flower, they became mesmerized by the profusion of unusual looking petals. "Why, Suzanne, do you see what I see? Do you see eyes and faces?"

But when Tatjana turned toward her servant-girl she no longer saw the face of Suzanne. Instead she saw other eyes and noses, a long series, a continuous stream of waving curls and locks, of faces ---thousands, millions, which all appeared and disappeared and reappeared at the same time, which all continually shifted and rejuvenated themselves and which were yet all Suzanne.

She saw the face of a lake trout, with a huge, painfully opened mouth, a dying fish with waning eyes. She saw the face of a newborn baby, fat and ruddy, ready to whine. She saw the face of a murderer, saw him plunge a knife into the body of a man, a woman; at the same moment she saw this criminal outstreched, bound, and his head chopped off by a guillotine.

She saw the naked bodies of men and women in the postures and transports of passionate love. She saw cadavers stretched out in morgues, still, cold, empty. She saw the heads and torsos of animals, wild pigs, alligators, elephants, camels, birds.

She saw Dionysos and Hades and Zeus and Poseidon. She saw all these shapes and faces in a thousand relationships to each other, all helping each other, loving, hating, and destroying each other and become newly born.

Each one was mortal, a passionate, excruciating example of all that is evanescent. Yet none of them died, they were only making transitions, were always reborn, continually had a new face: only time stood between one face and another.

And all these forms and faces rested, flowed, reproduced, swam past and submerged, urging to merge into each other, and over them all there was continually something, unreal and yet existing, stretched across like glass or ice, like a transparent skin, shell, form or mask of water -- and this mask was Tatjana's smiling face which Suzanne touched with her fingertips at that moment.

And Tatjana saw that this mask-like smile, this smile of unity over the flowing forms, this smile of simultaneousness over the thousands of births and deaths ---this smile of Tatjana's and Suzanne's -- was exactly the same as the calm, delicate, impenetrable, perhaps gracious, perhaps mocking, wise, thousand-fold smile of Demeter, Kore, Persephone, Aphrodite, Athena, Hera, Artemis, Gaia, the many-faced Great Goddess, as she the Goddess Herself had seen it in awe a thousand times. [apologies to Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha]

It was at that moment that a light shone from the distant shore of the lake. The light grew brighter and seemed to be approaching at a great speed.

It grew taller in stature and could soon be discerned as a gigantic wave. Both Tatjana and Suzanne were frozen in awe at the sight, for perched atop the wave in a manner like something out of a dream was a golden chariot led by eight ebony stallions.

The Charioteer was a dark hulking figure who made Tatjana's eyes open wide. The figure was fast approaching and neither of the two maidens could move. Suddenly Tatjana heard herself begin to scream ......and then everything was suddenly ......black..........and silent.......

Suzanne awoke with a start. It was morning. Where was she? What an amazing dream she'd had, she thought. Where's Princess Tatjana? Wait, ....that light from across the shore....that wave....."Tatjana!" she called. "Princess Tatjana! Are you nearby?".

It was then that Suzanne spied one of Tatjana's sandals by the shore......

Tatjana: You know, 'Author', Honey, that this is a totally ridiculous piece of tripe.

Author: You asked me for an 'erotic' story, Tatjana, so I just sat down at the keyboard, and this was what came from my fingers after about half an hour, or so, and....

Tatjana: Erotic?! There's nothing 'erotic' about it. It's plain bad. It reads like you were making it up spontaneously......and entirely 'convoluted', I might add.

Author: I told you that I was just warming up. The next part really gets steamy.

Tatjana:Well, ok, but it better be good.

Author: But if it's about being bad. . .

Tatjana: ...it would be even better.

Male Reader: (thinking to himself) ...there better be a fuckin' blowjob scene comin' up. This is bullshit.

[end of Part One]

The Hair-Raising Misadventures of Princess Tatjana, Bohemian Enchantress, and her Magic Carpet will soon follow in Part Two.