Enchantress

"I guess we'll find out when the sign painter fills it in," muttered Gaspode.

"We're so new here, we need to explore a little," said Octavia almost apologetically. "Where might we find Nana Partridge's cottage?"

"Same place it always sits," grinned Homlette. Getting no reaction he said, "see that cart path up Main street from your bookstore next to the Mill?"

"Where's Main Street?" asked Nick who was still so underwhelmed with Creel Springs that his head was spinning.

"You're standing in the middle of it."

"I can see someone hitting something hot," said Octavia.

"That's the Blacksmith, the Mill is across the street, and the trail is right there. Just follow that trail 'bout a mile or so, and it will take you to Nana Partridge's cottage."

"Thank you!" said Octavia, "does that path have a name?"

Ophilia thought for a moment then said, "folks here just call it Nana's driveway."

The young couple dressed like a pair of magicians stopped the conversation around the furnace at the mill, but Nick and Octavia didn't notice, neither had ever seen so many trees! And the huge mountain! It was all too exciting for them. They made the turn and found that Nana's Driveway was a bit narrow, but there were a couple of areas where it widened, and two carriages could meet and pass each other. The term Driveway didn't do the beauty of the path any justice, brightly colored blossoms lined the sides of the path, birds sang {without weezing!} and a stream bubbled happily without a body or sack full of dead kittens to block its path. Nick and Octavia strolled through the woods enjoying the smell of the pine trees and the perfume of the flowers all the while holding hands and stopping in every patch of warm sunlight for a gentle kiss. Through the trees they could see the brook babbling merrily down the hill toward Creel Springs and whenever it came near the pathway, Nick would go look at it. The clear mountain water splashing happily over the rocks, tiny fish in little groups idling in small pools, it was all too beautiful. If he grew up here, he would have spent every day playing in this liquid miracle.

Nick scooped a handful of water out of the brook and sniffed it... it didn't singe his nose hairs or cause a black-out headache, so it's definitely not Ankh-Morpork water. He then took a sip, an act only done on a bet in Ankh-Morpork, and he didn't die! It was delicious! He filled a water bottle up with the stuff and he and Octavia enjoyed the first water they ever enjoyed as they walked up the path hand in hand.

Finally, they reached a house that must be Nana's cottage. It was a nice, two story house with a steeply pitched thatched roof, a covered porch spread across the entire front of the building with rocking chairs that beckoned for a relaxing spell. In front of the cabin was a large glassy pond that was fed by a stream that fell over a three foot waterfall. With a splash Gula planted herself at the top of the waterfall and she tried her hand at being a fountain.

As they stepped up to the porch a cheerful feminine voice inside the cabin called out, "Come in! I've been waiting for you two lovebirds!"

Uncertain of what was in store for them, Nick and Octavia stepped up the porch steps nervously holding hands. As they entered the cabin a warm, friendly voice said, "Oh my, don't you two make a couple! Are you married?"

As Nick sputtered and stuttered, Octavia smiled and said, "No we're not."

"We can fix that if you'd like," said the voice, "it works much better if you are, but then, nothing says you have to be."

"I want to be," said Nick suddenly and Octavia looked at him in surprised delight.

"Why?" said the voice. "You're free as a bird now, why give that all away?"

"All my life I've been free, and I never had nothin'," said Nick sadly. "Once I had a dog, but they even took him away. Now I have someone that taught me how to love, and I'll fight to keep her, protect her, and make her happy till my dying breath... No, I ain't free, but now I have everything I could ever want."

"And what about you, pretty one?"

It took Octavia a long time to recover from Nick's declaration of love. She knew she'd never top it, but she had to be honest. "I... I have a father, and he helped so much, he loves me but he's not human and he doesn't understand, but he tries..." Octavia leaned on Nick, their fingers entwined, nervously his lips touched her cheek giving her strength. "I bounced from family to family, nothing was permanent, nothing was guaranteed, and there was no love. But Nick, he's everything to me now, I can't think of anything else but loving him except his loving me..."

"Do you two think you can care for each other like that forever?" When both nodded a match flared and a candle lit and a sweet looking older woman appeared in the candlelight. "Well, ya probably can't, but if you can continue to try, you'll be doing a sight better than most couples that I married. Go on young man, kiss your bride."

"Bri... wha?" Octavia couldn't get the words out before Nick turned her face toward him and their lips met. As they kissed, both were filled with a warm, almost ecstatic feeling of relief, they were no longer scurrying about the discworld terrified that they would lose each other, they were a team, and all the churches, priests, flowers, and wedding gowns couldn't bring them anywhere closer to that one perfect moment what they were feeling.

"And that's how we do it in the mountains," grinned Nana. "You two were already married in your hearts, you just needed someone to tell you it was true."

Nick sat in a cozy chair next to Nana and pulled Octavia onto his lap while Gaspode curled up at his feet. The wonder dog was confused, he could see Nana and he could hear Nana, but he couldn't smell Nana, and for a dog, that made her invisible. "Do you do this a lot?" asked Octavia as Nick held her tight.

"Weddings? Not as much as I used to, most folk stop asking after you die, but when I see a couple that truly needs to tie the knot, I step in. As witch in these parts, that job is going to fall to you."

"I'm not a witch Nana," said Octavia, "I worked too hard to get my certification as a wizard and..."

"I weren't talking to you, I was talking to your hubby," said Nana. "He's the most dangerous kind of witch, a witch with both book learning and a heart." She saw the shocked look on Nick's face, "You'll do fine Mister Witch, just do a good job and the love will come. These are good people, just a bit slow on the uptake."

"No that's not it... We're really married?" gasped Nick.

"You'll have to present yourselves to the king and queen at Lancre Town, Queen Magrat was a witch so she will be interested in meeting you, but yes, you're married forever and ever, and Queen Magrat will supply the official decree. It's how Herb and I got married..." a misty expression of happiness spread over Nana, and she leaned back in her rocking chair. "He and I got married out on the porch, we said our I Want Yous and headed upstairs." She laughed at a memory and said, "I was so worried that he'd find out I was a witch, but he knew all along. He kinda liked the idea too."

"How long ago was that Nana?" asked Octavia.

"That was over sixty years ago... before we married, we wuz wild, but we found ways to stave off the urges." She looked back through the misty veil of time and laughed. "My maiden name was Wolf, we wuz Appalonia Wolf and Herb Partridge... My Herb once told me that he was the first Partridge to ever eat a Wolf." Octavia and Nana laughed over that remark, but Nick was confused.

"I don't get it."

"The velum!" gasped Octavia before Nick could be enlightened about voracious partridges. "What is the secret to the Thaumatin Velum?"

"There's no secret dear," said Nana, "The wizards refused to make it, they left it up to us witches to make it for them. Then they just forgot how to make it and everything about it and all they had to do was ask." She pointed to the table next to the chair Nick and Octavia were sitting on, "In that drawer is everything you need to know." And with that, Nana Partridge leaned over, blew out the candle and was gone.

In the drawer were several sets of papers, crudely written and badly spelled instructions on maintaining the property, an introductory letter addressed to Queen Magrat signed by Nana Partridge introducing the last couple she married, Nick and Octavia Stein. The letter was dated "in the Year of the Concerned Mollusk" which was ten years ago. In an envelope were two simple gold rings, Nick slipped the smaller one on Octavia' ring finger and she slid the large one on Nick's finger and they fit perfectly.

When they parted their kiss they also found in the drawer, tied with a ribbon, was the instructions on how to create Thaumatin Velum... Velum is prepared animal hide that can last for centuries with a minimum of preservation efforts, and it can be scraped clean to be used for other purposes. It needs to be enchanted for a spell written on it to work and this scroll reveals the secret to enchanting the writing material.

Nick was not versed in too many ancient languages, mostly Kuian {it's the language of the magical sunken kingdom of Ku and the language used for most spells. Other than that, it's only used to list ingredients on product labels and possible side effects on over the counter medications}, the instructions for the Thaumatin Velum were written in Mahatmah, a language so old it predated the advent of spoken conversation. "Oh my!" gasped Octavia as she read the scroll. "No wonder why the wizards cannot make their own Thaumatin Velum. The process involves sex."

"Sects? Well, of course, everybody knows you should never allow magic and religion to..."

Octavia stifled her new husband with a soft hand. "Not sects, sex. It involves the cojoining of the male and female bodies. The wizards took a vow of celibacy, that's why they had the witches enchant the velum!"

"Celibacy? I thought that had something to do with voting."

"I'll have a word with your instructor," she said with an ominous glance at Mesquite. The walking stick had climbed into an olliphont foot umbrella stand by the door and was trying to appear inconspicuous. Octavia returned the scroll to the drawer and stood, coaxing her new husband out of the chair. "Let's explore."

The fireplace was central to the wide open ground floor, the kitchen was well appointed with a white enamel covered dual fuel stove/oven. Dual Fuel was all the rage decades ago, the stove could burn wood or coal. Shelves and cupboards filled the house with devices and novelties passed down from generation to generation, from cottage owner to cottage owner.

Upstairs they found two rooms, one room held a beautiful antique crib, rocking chair, and other furniture that a person needs in their first year of life, the other room contained a wardrobe, dresser, hope chest, and the biggest bed Nick had ever seen in his life. Nick sat on the edge of the bed, bouncing, while Gaspode hopped up and curled up at the end of the bed. "Dis is da life!" he groaned happily as he drifted off to sleep.

"Come on," said Octavia as she urged Nick up and off the bed, "Just a little bit more to explore," she said with an expectant smile. She led him downstairs and out the back to a porch back there. They found a tool shed, and a "Critter Shed" with stalls for a goat and a cow, a pen for pigs, and a coop for chickens. At the end of the back porch there was a two seat out house, a "Two Holer," and a shower.

"What is this for?" asked Nick as he pulled a chain and water sprayed down from above.

"It's to prevent stinky husbands," insisted Octavia. "If you're working out in the garden or in the shed and you want to make some enchanted velum, I'm going to insist that we use this first."

"I don't get it."

"You're going to," said Octavia as she nudged Nick onto a bench. She's never been in this predicament before, she doesn't have a long sexual history having three lovers in her past and one of them was a woman, but that taught her a road map of her own body, she can use that to teach Nick. She eased off her robes and stood naked before him, looking to see where his eyes spent most of their time, but after a tour of her lush body they returned to her eyes.

For his part, Nick wasn't stupid, but he was ignorant of the sexual side of his being. He had spent his entire life trying to stay alive, there were no urges other than hunger and fear in his life and the only people he ever felt close to were Octavia and Gaspode. These feelings he was having for Octavia were completely new and entirely scary. She slipped off his worn out boots and washed his feet with a damp cloth then she urged him to stand. "Let's get these clothes off of you."

Nick was confused, but for once in his life, he wasn't scared. She eased his robes off of him and traced her fingers down his chest. She had seen him naked when changing his bandages in Four Ecks, but he wasn't conscious then and neither was his cock... oh my! It's conscious now! Her hand closed around his long, thick cock and he suddenly looked panicked. Pleasure, real pleasure streamed through his body, his cock became the center of his universe and suddenly something happened in his brain. He has stroked his cock before, but it felt nothing like this! Her hand felt so good, then an explosion of GOOD happened, and it kept happening over and over, his body jerked in time with the pulsations of his cock, his body was out of his control. Octavia's soft, warm hand stroked up and down his cock causing more and more intense pulsations, and soon it became too good. "Stop! Please stop - it's too much," he said with a small laugh in his voice, and he sank back to the bench.

"Wow! That was incredible!" said Octavia as she gently milked Nick's cock.

Nick raised his passion heavy eyelid and grinned a sated grin, "It was..." then he noticed that Octavia was covered with a milky white substance. "Did I do that to you?" he gasped in terror.

"Yes, you did," she grinned, she appeared to be happy about being covered with that white goo. It was in her hair, on her face, on her breasts... everywhere she directed it to go. Before he could apologize, she quickly said, "This is good, I like when it happens, it makes both of us feel better, and if we use it right, we can make a baby!" Her grin was huge and genuine, and she urged him up off the bench.

They showered and the whole time their soapy hands explored each other's body Nick thought, "MAKE a baby?" He never thought you could actually make a baby; he thought that babies just happened. When you spend your entire life fighting for scraps of bread and watching friends die at the hands of bigger men for a scrap of meat, human reproduction is not a primary concern. In fact, the women he knew were also vying for that moldy potato that stands between them and starvation so romance never entered his mind until the day a woman pretending to be a man asked him what he would do with her on an island.

Squealing with laughter, Octavia led Nick to the bedroom by the hand, and when they reached the softest bed Nick had ever lay on {actually the only bed Nick has ever laid on} his cock was hard and throbbing again.

Trembling with her own excitement, Octavia introduced Nick to the wonders of the female body. She had to show him everything that she liked and in the end was grateful for that experience. He traced a figure eight around her large breasts, back and forth, around and around. "What are you doing?" she asked as he traced the figure eight.

"This is the figure eight, the sign of perfection, the sign of Octavia, the sign of my love for you. It's the symbol of infinity, which is the length of time I will love you."

"Mmm," she sighed as their lips met, "did you become a witch? Or a poet?"

Soon he was pinching and twisting her left nipple while he suckled and gnawed on her right nipple. His naïve but enthusiastic lovemaking on her breasts brought her to the edge of an orgasm. "So good honey, let's move downward," and she urged him lower by pressing his shoulders downward. His lips drew a line of kisses from her breast to her belly button where he paused and tickled her there with a wriggling tongue until she curled up laughing, her mind confused with the tickle and the passion.

Then lower, she gave him a tour of her vagina and that marvelous spot that loves to be touched. "Can I lick you there?" he asked innocently. Her scent was addictive, and he found that her flavor was nirvana.

"Give me a finger," she gasped as his attention began scrambling her thoughts. He slowly eased a finger inside of her pussy and found her insides to be warm and moist and he realized before she told him that this was where his cock was going to go. He began to slide that finger in and out of her pussy and she smiled then leaned her head back and gasped as the sensations overwhelmed her. She has had sex before, but never with someone she loved. The addition of that love was an aphrodisiac that overwhelmed her.

Without being prompted Nick added a finger and began to slide two fingers in and out of Octavia giving her overwhelming excitement. One of her hands was on a breast, the other grasping Nick's wrist pulling his fingers into her faster, deeper... then he went back to licking her clit sending Octavia out of her mind.

"Now!" she gasped, "fuck me now!"

Her demand confused Nick; he was fucking her - oh wait. He got the hint when she began pulling him upwards and aligning his cock with her soaking pussy he eased inside of the only woman he would ever love.

His single eye met both of hers and they grinned at each other both in joy and accomplishment, then after a long pause as they got used to each other's bodies, he began moving. He eased his thick cock in and out of her vagina and with a long, sensuous kiss they encouraged each other to greater efforts. Soon his cock was driving in and out of Octavia with abandon. The sound of their bodies slapping together filled the cabin and soon their cries of passion were heard.

Octavia wrapped her legs around Nicks ass and locked her ankles, then clawing his back she shrieked "Cum in me!" as her orgasm struck.

With a roar Nick joined her in ecstasy firing volley after volley of sperm into her already soaked vagina. Their hands roamed over each other's bodies desperately trying to find a way to hold each other closer, then as the waves of ecstasy washed away, they were left with a feeling of fulfillment and peaceful joy. Nearby Gaspode curled up in a pool of sunlight and slept, happy that the humans finally figured out that part of their relationship. Happier still that he didn't have to find a bucket of ice water.

Nick didn't want to go to sleep but he could barely keep his eyes open, what did she do to him? The room was quite warm even though the windows at both ends of the house were open, which didn't help Nick's fight with the nap that was creeping up on him. Recognizing that Nick was nodding off, Octavia softly said, "Let's go wash lover." She led him downstairs, but he was so mesmerized by her delightful, perfect ass that he didn't notice that she led him out the front door and down to the pond where they splashed and played like children until the sun began to sink lower in the sky.

Returning to the house they found a basket on the porch containing bread, cheese, a roast chicken and various fruits. While they played and splashed and made love on their lawn, a neighbor walked past them unseen and left a gift basket. It caused Octavia to realize that she's going to look at each one of her neighbors from now on wondering if it was him or her that dropped it off while they played and got an eyeful. She suspected that they did get an eyeful because the note left with the basket said "It's so nice to get newlyweds to move to Creel Springs. {They were on the far end of the pond playing under Gula's spray when the basket was dropped off, the neighbor didn't see anything but Octavia will wonder for years}