Soul Alchemy

SOUL ALCHEMY

The Mating of the Holly King & the Ivy Queen

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This is a copyrighted work of fiction. All rights reserved.

This is an entry into the 2010 Winter Holiday Story Contest, so please remember to cast your vote after reading!

Author's Note: This story contains Celtic names and words; a pronunciation guide is included at the end of the story for reference. As this story contains significant fantasy elements, suspension of disbelief is required to fully enjoy it. Finally, this tale contains male/male erotic scenes. If you're offended by any of the previous, please go elsewhere for entertainment.

My sincerest thanks to my emergency editor and a damn fine author, NoMoreTears00. For all you've done, I owe you more than I can put into words. Your friendship and your steadfast commitment to excellence regarding your own writing have been ebon gems in these foul times. I wish you decadent nights and successful days, Darkling.

****

"Hey Ivy!" River's voice called out as he waved from the cabin. I smiled and flushed, pleased when he bounded over, dodging the Land Rover that was pulling out with its gear all packed up on top.

I looked up from the packs I was seeing to and smiled at my best friend. "You're back," I said, and immediately felt stupid for it. Of course he was back. He was standing in front of me, wasn't he? But he just grinned and nodded, grabbing one of the paper sacks of homemade granola we put in the packs and digging into it with one large, strong hand. He shoveled a palmful of the crunchy snack into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed before speaking.

"So, are you sticking around for the holidays this year?"

I grimaced. "You know I go to my grandparents' for two weeks," I said. "Court order."

"But you've come of age," he protested.

"Dude, they're my grandparents," I said. "Besides, it's not as bad as Wisteria claims. They're cool."

He made a face. "She says they put you in a hospital every time you go there."

I sighed. I loved my life at Shadow Ridge Commune. My mother, Wisteria, moved us here when I was barely two weeks old. Shortly after my seventh birthday, though, I got very sick. When Wisteria refused to take me to the hospital, my grandparents hired a private investigator to kidnap me. They saved my life.

I have juvenile diabetes, a form of Type I Diabetes where the pancreas simply does not produce the insulin the body needs to break down carbohydrates and create the energy the body needs to exist. I spent three months between Children's Hospital and my grandparents' home. A family court judge issued a protective custody order contingent on my mother's capitulation to treatment. Basically, unless Wisteria continued my treatment, my grandparents would get full custody of me.

Wisteria studied up on natural insulin and the diet at the commune was already macrobiotic, which couldn't have been much better. She signed me up for Medicaid since she didn't make enough money to have any kind of health insurance, and found a mail order company that would deliver all my supplies to the commune. Really, Wisteria tried her best after she understood what was wrong with me, and everybody at the commune - the people I thought of as my family - supported and cared for me growing up.

What Wisteria told the commune about my grandparents was true, though. When I went to spend the holidays with them, the very first thing they always did was take me to Children's Hospital for a full round of tests and an appointment with the endocrinologist. I hated it, but understood their anxiety. They were just afraid of losing me, and they didn't understand life at Shadow Ridge. They never had. They didn't understand how we could all eat and sleep together, how the men and women could use the same bathrooms and showers, how we could spend the hot summer months nude and not feel any shame or modesty.

I hadn't been raised to understand shame or modesty. Our bodies were beautiful, the differences in them were wonderful, and the confusion on my face when my grandfather tried to explain why it was wrong for me to walk around their house without clothing on angered him. I was thirteen at the time, and had started going through puberty. He deposited me with my grandmother and informed her she needed to have "the talk" with me, because, "that girl of ours has him too sideways for me to deal with him."

I told my grandmother she didn't need to tell me about sex; I already knew all about it. She asked me, her voice shaking, to please, please not touch any of the girls at the commune until I was much older. When I very candidly told my grandmother that she didn't need to worry about me touching the girls, because I far preferred touching the boys, she went whiter than her hair, and told me very succinctly not to tell my grandfather that, ever.

I was perplexed. Nobody at Shadow Ridge cared.

As I got older, though, and began my studies online, I learned more and more about the world of my grandparents, about fear and prejudice. I realized that Shadow Ridge was a haven, an escape, and I was glad of it. I had to decide, and soon, if I was going to stay at the commune or if I was going to leave to go to college. I'd been offered a scholarship to the University of California, a full ride, all expenses paid. A tremendous opportunity, certainly, but one I wasn't sure if I could handle. I'd never lived anywhere but Shadow Ridge, except for those few months in the hospital and my holiday trips to my grandparents. And of course, there was River, my very best friend.

I offered him another smile. "You know I'm diabetic."

"You're fine," he said, dropping the now empty sack and coming to me. He circled my waist with his arms and pulled me into a loose embrace. "Look at you. You're strong, Ivy. How do you know it hasn't healed? Gone away?"

I sighed. I'd told him all this before, but River's parents were pretty hardcore in their beliefs. They didn't believe in any modern medicine, and he waffled back and forth in what he thought was right, mostly because of growing up with me. I stepped back from him, pulling away from his embrace even though it felt so incredibly right being in his arms.

"Riv, it's not something that goes away. My pancreas doesn't work. I have to take the insulin shots forever. I'll die without them."

He sighed and tightened his hold, drawing me back into the hug. "I'm sorry. I just... don't want you to go. I hate not having you here for the holidays. It doesn't feel right. Especially this year."

I reached up and touched his face, the light stubble he missed when he shaved this morning and the scar on his jaw from when he fell in the creek and cut himself on a rock when we were fourteen. "I know," I said, quietly.

"You two boyfriends gonna kiss or you gonna get those packs together for our hike?"

I turned to see two couples standing about five yards away. The man who spoke was probably in his late twenties and had a sneer on his face. If they were here at Shadow Ridge to go on one of the guided hikes, they were in the wrong place.

"These packs are being broken down," I said, not angry in the slightest at his words. I kissed River regularly and quite enjoyed it. We were both virgins as the dictates of the commune held that sexual intercourse was not permitted between partners unless they had both come of age, and River wouldn't complete the ceremony until after Christmas. I was waiting for him, and until then, we were happy to use other ways to satisfy each other.

"I think you're in the wrong place," I continued. "If you're here for a guided hike, you'll need to go to Green Cabin. River, maybe you could show them?"

"Sure Ivy," he said, and he did kiss me then, a soft, warm press of lips along with a slide of his tongue along mine that sent shivers down my spine.

"Gross," the man said, and spat in the dirt. I wanted to tell him to save his spit, because if he was taking the next hike that Bear was leading, he was going to need every drop of moisture in his body, but then decided against saying a word. Let him figure it out on his own.

River shrugged. "Follow me. Ivy, I'll see you later." He nimbly hopped over the bench and led the four adults toward the outpost cabin where the commune operated its business from, offering guided hikes, camping trips, canoe trips, and in season, white water rafting. River, quite a bit bigger and stronger than I was, worked as a guide for the commune and was very popular among the tourist crowds. With his long, sun-streaked California blond hair, his large, expressive, aquamarine eyes, and his perpetually tanned skin, he was a walking advertisement for health and outdoor adventure, exactly what Shadow Ridge wanted the outside world to see and experience inside our gates.

I finished breaking down the packs and separating out the supplies that could be reused. Sometimes in the summer I led hikes in the flat regions, the less strenuous walks we offered for children and the elderly. Not that I wasn't fit and healthy, I was, but the insurance that the commune carried wouldn't cover me as a guide, so I couldn't work as one. I contented myself working with the supplies. As long as I was doing something for the commune, working, I felt like I was earning my keep.

I was supposed to meet Wisteria in the business office and walk to dinner with her. It was Friday night and on Sunday a taxi would arrive to take me to the airport where I'd fly to my grandparents' home for two weeks including Christmas, but not New Years, not this year. River's Coming of Age ceremony was scheduled for December 30th, and while I couldn't attend it, I was flying back that day to spend New Year's Eve with him. If everything went the way we planned, neither one of us would greet the New Year as virgins.

As I approached White Cabin, the location of the Shadow Ridge business offices, I heard raised voices. This was such an oddity around here that my steps faltered. Occasionally we had dissatisfied customers, but since the customer is always right, and we do everything in our power to make a customer happy, anyone who is dissatisfied almost never stays that way very long. The raised voices from inside White Cabin showed no sign of abating, and one of them, I realized with a profound shock, was Wisteria. In my entire life, I'd never heard her voice agitated or raised like it was now. I inched closer to the door and listened. She was arguing with a man who spoke with a deep voice that had a strange accent, either an Irish or a Scottish brogue.

"Did ye think ye could hide from me, lass? 'Tis foolish ye are to be believin' that I wouldnae find ye both when the time came."

"You can't just show up here and make demands," Wisteria said, her voice shrill. "He's eighteen!"

"Aye, that he is," the man said, and there was a smugness in his voice that was ugly. "Yer petty human laws cannae stop me from taking him now."

"Kidnapping is kidnapping, Cian," Wisteria snapped. "It makes no difference if it's a child or an adult. You can't just- just- take him!"

"The old man is dead," the man said, his brogue very thick now. "'Tis no one to stop me from simply taking the boy and ye as well. But I'm no' here to do that. I ken the sugar curse has come upon him, Margaret Mary. Donnae ye be wantin' him to be cured?"

"I tried to summon you when he got sick," Wisteria said, harshly, like she was fighting tears and losing the battle. "You didn't respond!"

"I'm sorry, Maggie," the man said, and his voice sounded different, warmer. I'd never heard anybody, not even my grandparents, call Wisteria by her given name, but whoever was in White Cabin thought nothing of it. When he spoke again his tone was gentle, persuasive, and infused with something that tugged at a place deep inside of me.

"Ye ken he doesnae belong here. He needs to be with me, with his kin. Maggie May... the Shadar have seen him."

Wisteria gasped audibly, and then there was no sound, though I strained with both ears to hear more. I thought I might have heard... kissing noises? No, that couldn't be right. I waited a bit longer, and finally I heard Wisteria speak again. She sounded absolutely destroyed... broken.

"All right. All right. Take him. But I'm staying here. I won't go back... and I don't ever want to see you again, Cian."

I fled. The implications of what I'd heard were too much even for me. I ran all the way to Green Cabin, hoping and praying I'd run into River. Sure enough, he was still there, helping out after seeing the tourists off onto their hike with Bear. I grabbed him by the hand when I saw him and he laughed, grabbing me as our bodies slammed together.

"Whoa, Ivy! Slow down! Where's the fire?"

"Need to be alone with you," I panted, clutching him.

"Okay," he said, smiling gently.

He held my hand as I pulled him back to our dormitory. We could, of course, lay down on the mats in the common sleeping room, but it was full of people playing cards, reading, taking naps, and doing all the things people did in the common room later in the day. There were smaller rooms in the dorms where people could actually go to be more private, and River and I ducked into one of these. By the rules of the commune since he hadn't come of age and we weren't married, we had to leave the curtains open. I pulled him down on the futon after we'd both kicked our shoes off.

"So what's up?" he asked. "Couldn't wait until after dinner, huh? That's okay. I've been dying to touch you, too." He reached for my shirt and started to pull it off, but I stopped him.

"I heard something that has me kind of freaked out."

His beautiful expressive eyes instantly softened and he let go of my shirt to pull me close. I could smell the woodsy scent of his skin and hair and it helped to settle me some, though my heart was still pounding frantically. "What?"

"Wisteria was just talking to a man in the business office... and I think it might have been my father," I said.

River's eyes got huge. "But you've never met your father. I thought you said she didn't know who your father was!"

"That's what she told me. That she wasn't sure who my father was and it didn't matter. I was hers and she loved me, and Shadow Ridge loved us both."

River gentled me against his strong body and kissed me deeply. "We do love you. I love you."

"It sounded like the man she was talking to wants me to leave with him," I said, blurting out the most worrisome thing I'd heard, though I couldn't get a few of the other things out of my head either.

"Ivy, you're eighteen now," River said, brushing his full, soft lips over my cheeks, my forehead, and my chin. "You're not a child anymore. Your life is your own."

He was right, I knew he was right, but I could still hear the smugness of that foreign voice and his strange comment about "petty human laws." River's lips found my mouth and the next thing I knew our tongues were tangled, my hands under his shirt stroking the silky softness of his skin over his rippling abdominal muscles. His eyes were fever bright, the pupils huge with lust when we finally separated, and he ripped his shirt off before tugging mine in a far more gentle motion over my head.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, Babe," he said. "God, I wish that stupid ceremony was over and done with. I hate these rules! I'm eighteen already, damn it! I wish we could just make love."

I put my hand over his heart and he copied the gesture. For several minutes we just sat on the futon feeling each other's hearts pounding madly as we kissed. Then I couldn't take anymore.

"Pants," I breathed. "Lose your pants, now."

River chuckled and got up on his knees, pulling the button-fly on his jeans free in one quick rip that exposed the smooth, tanned skin of his groin and just the top of the tight, curly, dark blond hairs around his cock. He never wore any underwear. I groaned.

"Get those jeans off, Ivy, or did you want me to take them off you with my teeth?" he asked. His own pants sagged on his narrow hips and his hard cock leapt free. He was so incredibly lovely that I could barely contain myself. My hands were shaking. I reached for him but he jerked back and laughed.

"Your jeans, Ivy. Take them off!"

I quickly unbuttoned and unzipped my own pants, sliding them and my soft flannel boxers over my hips. My own dick sprang up, slapping my belly and leaving a sticky trail behind. Nude, we kicked our clothes onto the floor and stretched out on the futon together. Out of the corner of my eye I could see through the doorway into the dormitory. Several of the adults were watching us, or rather, had taken notice of us. That was fine. River hadn't come of age yet, and we weren't married. We both knew what was allowed and what was not. River and I were no strangers to each other's bodies and had pleasured each other before, many times.

River reached into the wooden box under the futon and retrieved the bottle of lubricant there. I shivered, knowing what he had in mind, and got up to grab a towel to put under us. As good as this was going to feel it got pretty messy. We lay on our sides facing each other, hard cocks pressed together, and he poured an ample amount of lube into my cupped hands, then poured an equal amount into his own.

We bellied up to each other, hands going around our cocks, covering each other in the slick, glossy lubricant. Our four hands made a kind of warm, moist tunnel between our bodies, incredibly slick and slippery for our cocks to slide and thrust through. We started slowly at first, just slow strokes of our dicks against each other through our slick hands, pistoning back and forth. But then River started squeezing me, and flicking the tip of his finger over the crown of my penis. I gripped him and added a twist as he moved, tugging his thin, silky foreskin back and forth over his swollen tip.

River groaned, his hips jerking as he thrust his hard prick up through our hands. "Fu-uck," he said, drawing the word out into a two-syllable sound. "That feels so good."

"Yeah," I breathed. I leaned in and pressed my lips against his, then nibbled at his ear, pumping my hips in a slow, sinuous motion that rubbed the full length of my cock against his. "Now tell me we aren't making love, Baby. Tell me that isn't exactly what this is."

River clutched me to him, his eyes rolling back into his head as he moaned, his cock pulsing and throbbing against mine. "I love you, Ivy. I love you so goddamned much."

"I love you, too," I said, feeling his pace increase. "Are you close, Riv?"

"Oh yeah."

"Cum with me?"

"Yeah... Squeeze harder, Babe. Stroke me faster," he begged.

I loved the desperate sound of his voice, the tension in his body, the way he quivered as he leaned in toward me. I did just as he asked, increasing both my grip and my speed as he did the same, both of us squeezing and stroking as we thrust in tandem. I felt my release boiling up from my balls just as I felt his cock harden, jerk, and felt the semen shoot up through his thick shaft to splatter between our bodies. It was just what I needed to throw me over the edge, and I came seconds later, crying out and spraying my load all over us both.

River sighed contentedly and kissed me deeply. "Mmm, I do love you, Ivy. And you're right. That's as much making love as anything else. I just wish you could be inside me."

That surprised me. I'd always thought when we finally had sex together that it would go the other way, with River being the more dominant partner. He must have sensed my surprise, because he laughed and kissed me again.

"Not what you were imagining?"

"Uh, not exactly," I said, grinning. "But however you want to do it is fine with me. When the time comes, that is," I hastily added.