A Veil of Sky, A Bed of Earth

"What are you doing?" she asked. He reached inside and pulled out a packet. He'd got them when he'd stopped off at the Co-Op for the milk, 'just on the off-chance'.

"Oh, no," said Emily, "No, no, no. It's a barrier."

"Well, yes, obviously," said Neville.

"No, I mean, it's a barrier between us. Between our love and between our connection with the Earth and the energies...No, just, I can't."

"Well, don't you think..."

"Silly, we're married now, or at least we will be afterwards. That's what it is to be wed. I won't be just half your wife. Besides, feel the magic in the hills tonight. A child conceived tonight would be blessed and a blessing." She drew his hand up and placed it on her belly.

Her words gave Neville pause. He'd said he'd marry her, then and there, and it seemed like a major concession. Now, it was everything all at once. Still, as he looked at her, he could imagine her belly full with his child and it didn't seem necessarily too bad -- wildly irresponsible maybe, but not too bad.

She'd noticed his pause. "You think I'm crazy, don't you?"

"I never..."

"It's okay. I get it. They say never stick your dick in crazy, right? When what they really mean is never stop sticking your dick in crazy. And, I'm going to make sure you never want to."

She didn't wait for an answer. From her position on his knees, she came and mounted him. As she enveloped his manhood, there was resistance for a second and she gave out a little gasp and then he was all the way inside her. This was it, this was their moment.

How did you describe being inside a woman? It had been a discussion point with some of his more experienced friends in-between rounds of whatever shooter they'd been playing at the time. Warm, wet, tight, great -- they'd lack the vocabulary to describe it. It was all of those things at the surface level, but it was also so much more. Every part of your existence lit up.

Firstly, there was the scent of a woman. He'd always assumed that meant a perfume. It didn't. It was the pheromones, existing halfway between the conscious senses and the lizard brain. Less obvious and more insidious than the smell of a good meal, it snuck into his system, whispering to him that this female he was so close to was available, willing, his.

Then there was the touch, where their bodies met. The sensations where their two cores met were extreme, but it was more than that - it was everywhere he put his hands, and their lips pressed together and her legs rubbing against his thighs as she moved against him. It was flesh and bone and hair and nails and it was him moving inside her.

Then there was the view - half-obscured in darkness and half-revealed in fire-light. The human body was a miracle, but no more so when it was twenty-years old and in the full flush of youth. He found himself ignoring her breasts and hips, but instead staring at the oddest parts of her. The line of her shoulder bone, the lobe of her ear, the start of her hairline and each one seemed perfect to her. But most of all, there were her eyes -- the fact she was looking at him in the same way he was looking at her and he felt no shame in himself.

She pushed his head forward and he took her nipples in his mouth. It was at once an alien action and yet also, half-remembered, the first action he had ever taken in his life. There was nowhere else on the human body that had some much flesh and yet no bone and the way they moved and squeezed as he was nurtured by them was unreal. She took his head in her arms and held him there. If kissing was an act of passion, then suckling was an act of motherhood. Women felt protected in a lover's arms, men found comfort in her teats.

All this was sex, but more than anything there was the feeling of success. Modern sensibilities would balk at the wordvictory, and would offer the feeble equivalent ofvalidation. She had chosen him and no other and that was the best feeling in the world. However many wanted her, he were better than any of them. He was a man doing that which made him a man. He wondered if a distant ancestor had made love in the same cave. If some of the millions strands of DNA from their ancient lovemaking had ended up within him or his lover. They were carrying out that which had sustained life these billion years in the same way and maybe in the same place. Those generations, they had all shared his sensation of elation, of a destiny fulfilled.

He put his arms beneath her posterior and lifted her up. Gently but firmly he put her down on the rock, lifted her legs apart and now entered her again from above. He let the animal take over, his primitive side -- not cruel or uncaring, but nonetheless all instinct and motion. Their bodies pressing and parting, sweating and gasping. Well before his climax started to mount he was lost inside her. And when they finished, crying out together, it was the denouement of the world's most ancient rite.

And then suddenly they were human again -- Adam and Eve. Whoever told them of their nakedness, they suddenly felt it keenly. A moment ago he had been pounding away at this girl, taking of her flesh, and now there was an expectation that they talk again: provide context to the deed just done, make small talk, plan their lives together. They could ask each over if they enjoyed it, though what really was there to say to that. He'd been a god and now he was Neville again, uncoordinated and much mocked of physique, and he wanted to hide away lest she realize what a fool she had been letting him near her.

As he withdrew from her, he found blood on his leg and thighs. He knew about this from Biology, of course, but there really was a lot. Had he hurt her somehow in their passion? Had it gone horribly wrong somehow? He didn't think so. She'd shown no real discomfort except at his initial entry and had never stopped or even slowed during their lovemaking. But still there was blood and so much of it. He was wondering how to even tell her, when he realized -- a wound on her knee had opened up again and this must account for the majority of the red liquid now covering him. He wondered when she had acquired it.

He took his shirt, now somewhat drier, and ripped a piece of the bottom. He bandaged her knee as much as possible. He would have liked to have washed the wound first, but they had no water. She'd have to get it seen to in the morning. Having cared for her injury, he lay back down and she wrapped her arms around him. They fell asleep in content silence.

During the night two things happened. Firstly, the two dogs padded their way into the cave and lay down besides them. He'd given Emily the remains of his shirt and trousers, so was wearing just his boxers, and they tried to have the coat cover both of them. He felt self-conscious, sleeping naked against the dogs, but still appreciated the extra warmth.

Secondly, about fifteen minutes later, a voice from outside of the cave yelled, "Coo-eee." When he went out to explore, he found a full plastic bag. He bought it back in.

"So, let's see, we've got a bag of chips to share. Looks like a large kebab, yeah, donner. For me maybe. Then you've got a bean-burger and a battered mushroom."

"Oh, that's nice," said Emily rousing herself. "How did they know I was a vegan?"

"No idea," said Neville. "Must just have been a lucky guess. She's alright, that Brenda, for all she's a right slapper." He stood by the edge of the cave and through some more twigs on the fire.

"Now, Neville, she's just got her own way of worshipping the Mother Goddess. I think she's a high priestess, she just doesn't know it."

Neville felt he'd probably been sick that day in R.E. "You're not going to be like that when you get older, are you?"

"Nah, I'm a one-tree kind of a squirrel. She was reet helpful during the summoning ritual though. And she bought me those boots."

Neville looked at her. "I bought those boots. They weren't cheap, you know. Why on Earth did you think Brenda bought them?"

"Well, I assumed she'd got them for me to keep me quiet after I stumbled in on one of her sessions yesterday. I mean, there was a note, but it didn't say who they were from, only that they hoped I'd look beautiful in them. The grammar and spelling were a bit off as well, so I assumed..."

"Emily, I wrote that note in soddingElvish. I didn't think I could be more obvious."

"Oh, right. I guess."

As they ate, Neville suddenly realized she'd said the words 'summoning ritual'. He rolled his eyes mentally. He could ask her about it, but he found he could already play the conversation in his head. He'd say he'd been coming anyway before the ritual had even commenced, and she's say that was a very mortal way of looking at things and why couldn't an all-powerful being start to answer a prayer before it had even been made. He'd point out that she could just have asked for his telephone number. She'd say the spell also made him fall in love with her and besides, where was the fun in that. He'd say that casting a love spell on him would be like giving Belgian chocolates to a diabetic. They'd kiss and make up. Their first argument as a couple resolved satisfactorily in his own head, he got on with enjoying the wedding feast.

Epilogue

Six days later, a taxi pulled up outside the Book Cottage. A tanned if not quite fully sunburned Verna Baldwin got out, tipped the driver and gathered her possessions from the boot. Leaving the other two on the pavement, she wheeled the largest of the three suitcases, which had a bag of duty free wrapped round the handle, into the store.

"Ey up, Emily-love. Everything been okay? I've had a great time. You should have seen them beaches, right beautiful they were and such weather. Oh, it does you good to get away, it does. Now, I've got a bottle of Sangria for ye mam and a wicker donkey for yourself, only the tail broke off going through customs. Right, now, d'ya give any more thought to letting that Neville Blackly take you out ta pictures or summit?"

Emily Blackly was wrapped head to toe in a blanket. A drink of hot lemon sat next to her, steaming away. She looked up from a book on natural child-birth that she'd found knocking about the store room.

"Ay, manner o' speaking, manner o' speaking."