Fenza: She of the Forest

Nard's climax built and built until he could hold back no longer. He drowned in pure pleasure. Basked in his glory, he didn't hear Ocolla cry out as she shared a final orgasm with him. He was unaware of the hot semen spurting from his tip, coating her womb.

She collapsed on him in a tangle of sweat, They held each other as they found their escaped breath. The sheets were in ruins, the air filled with Ocolla's scent. Cum drizzling from Nard, mixing with the wet spot Ocolla had made on the comforter.

They kissed and Nard played with Ocolla's sweaty dark hair. It eroded as Nard started drifted into to a peaceful sleep.

"Shit!" he heard Ocolla exclaim. She was dressing.

"What's wrong?" Nard asked.

"It's dawn already," Ocolla replied. "Night comes early for us."

Nard looked out his bedroom window. The eastern sky was a deep violet.

"Hold on," Nard said. "Maybe you could sleep here for a few hours?"

"Afraid not," Ocolla declined, now back in her boots, armor and leggings.

"Breakfast, then? I restocked the preserver the other day."

Ocolla turned down that offer as well. She kissed him with a fleeting peck.

"See you tonight."

She left his bedroom.

"Ocolla..."

The door closed.

Nard sighed. It was always the same with her: passionate post-patrol sex but then retreat at any hint of sunlight. This time of day was equivalent to the sun's waning in any other profession. There was no need for such a hasty exit.

Before he could reflect upon his situation with Ocolla, he fell asleep amidst their sexual aftermath.

A few hours later, he awakened from a dream he couldn't quite remember, with the exception of one detail.

That flicker of light he'd seen.

It had a woman's shape.

****

The sheets were in the cleanser, a small breakfast was in his belly and he was freshly sanitized. As morning lengthened into day, Nard drove his pod back to the same spot where he'd slammed the brake.

He would take one curious stroll, he decided, before returning. By then the sheets would be washed and dried for a proper Mate's rest. He would take his Stinger as a precautionary measure.

Nard expected to find nothing. More than anything this was a distraction from his nagging thoughts about Ocolla.

'Friends Impassioned,' was the common phrase. Nard and Ocolla had been Mates since Nard joined the Tanglewood Shadow Patrol at age 21, though their intimacy started only a year ago. Nard hoped to take their relationship beyond Friends Impassioned, though Ocolla was always in a hurry, turning down offerings for breakfasts or post-patrol dinners, needing to be somewhere, for some purpose. She wasn't married, nor in a more serious relationship with another man.

Nard exited his pod with his Stinger holstered. He crossed a shallow ditch. The woods were open but not well-traveled. Few had ventured in enough to create a trail. The treetops blocked out much of the sunlight.

It was a cold morning, a product of the season as well as Tanglewood's location. A leather jacket and thermal shirt served as protection against the elements, though the wind nipped at Nard's reddening cheeks.

He braved brush and limbs. Woodland critters chirped songs and glowflies fluttered about as orange sparks. Something was different about this place. It was enchanting, otherworldly. Nard almost expected to see the fairies of old, tiny humanoid women who'd kept to the air with beating wings.

He felt movement, and in a flash had his Stinger out and pointed. But there was nothing but the continuing dance of the glowflies and melodies of the forest's inhabitants. Still, Nard kept the Stinger at the ready.

He walked a short distance and then spun at the feeling of more movement.

He grew frightened. Narangorn played such stealthy games. Nard considered retreating back to his pod. He looked behind him and ahead. He was so startled by a sudden presence that he almost fired his Stinger.

To his utter shock, he was aiming at a woman's face.

"And who trudges the forest at this place and hour?" she asked with deep suspicion.

Nard holstered his weapon. But if the random sighting of a woman was not enough of a surprise, this one was also quite beautiful.

Beautiful and completely naked.

For a woman to be nude in the middle of this freezing forest meant ill tidings. But who could have done such a thing? It would be idiotic for violent criminals to hide so close to potential Shadowspawn.

"Ma'am? A-are you alright!?" Nard asked, worried for her.

The blonde stranger stared cautiously. Nard placed his Stinger on the ground and stepped back a few paces.

"Ma'am, I apologize for the scare, but please listen. I-I am a Mate of the Shadow Patrol. If you've been harmed I can transmod a hospital."

"Harmed? Whatever do you mean?"

"The City Guard, perhaps?" Nard continued. "Ma'am, everything will be fine. I don't have to know the details. I can transmod them right now."

The woman smiled; it was the warmest and prettiest smile Nard had seen in all his 24 years. "I understand. But you've no need to summon help. No harm has befallen me, stranger. Why would you assume so?"

The response baffled Nard. "Well, if you'll pardon the...I-I thought...apologies ma'am, but I assumed so...b-because you are...naked."

"A kind heart," the woman responded. "And ever vigilant. I like that. But this is as I always am, stranger."

"Naked, you mean?"

"Why, yes," she clarified, as if it meant nothing.

Nard supposed being here didn't violate any public indecency laws, though there was still the matter of the chilled air.

"B-but you aren't...cold? We're in northeast Corina and it's barely morning."

"Only your kind worry of such matters," she said. "It has no effect upon me."

Your...

"'My kind?' I'm human, like you."

"Am I?" the woman wondered with merriment.

"I-I would assume so."

She took in a heavy breath. "You smell of a recent copulation."

To be 'taken aback' would put it mildly. "P-pardon?"

"A woman has left her feminine scent upon you," she very casually explained. "Mightily aroused, was this one."

Nard felt uncomfortable. "T-that's enough."

The woman chuckled. "You blush! Take no offense, man of authority. I was merely complementing your...obvious prowess."

"I..."

Speaking of sexual matters, the woman's nakedness was enticing. She was tall, with honey-blonde hair so long the wind wrapped it about her waist. Her breasts were plump, more bountiful than Ocolla's. Each ended with a slightly raised tip, small peas at their centers.

But what struck Nard beyond anything were her eyes. Big and blue, they had an exotic quality to them that spoke of both innocence and carnal hunger. They evened out her pretty nose and mouth.

Nard hoped this woman couldn't his the risen bulge.

"From what faction did you say you hail?" the woman asked.

Faction?

"The Shadow Patrol," Nard answered.

Despite his best efforts his gaze wandered. Not a hint of hair was on her arms or legs, and this was also true of her bare pubic region. The lips between her legs were a closed line, that hid her clit.

"Shadow Patrol! Quite serious! I am partial to men of authority."

Broken from his trance, Nard smiled sheepishly. "I-I'm hardly that. The City Guard's more important than me. I'm just a demon hunter."

He scratched his neck.

"But Shadows are of a much greater threat than common criminals, no?"

The woman's blue eyes sent growing desires to Nard's loins. His engorged dick throbbed.

This was a bizarre situation, however, and Nard was not one to drop his inhibitions and screw in the wilderness, though were he of lesser will he just may.

"I have to go," Nard said quickly. He retrieved and holstered his Stinger. "Are you sure you don't need assistance, ma'am?"

"Leaving so soon?" the woman asked with a hint of sadness.

"Well, yes. Shadow Patrolmen sleep during the day, you see. Our work lasts us from dusk to pre-dawn hours."

He turned and walked away.

"I would hope to see you again sooner than later, stranger," the woman called from behind him.

Nard staggered through the woods, sporting a raging hard-on and a spot of stickiness in his underwear. He couldn't resist a final look.

The naked woman was gone.

When he reached his pod he fired it up and drove home, half-convinced this was all a dream.

A nude lady in the forest. Perhaps she had been assaulted and the trauma had shattered her mind.

But what of her vanishing act? Shadow Patrolmen had their eyes sharpened for trouble. She couldn't have escaped him. Perhaps she was a succubus, but that was less likely. Succubi only visited men in their beds at night, and their sort were long absent from this world.

These thoughts and speculations remained with Nard when he fell upon his fresh linens to sleep the day away. Sleep was as fitful as before. The blonde woman filled his dreams. She laughed while she flaunted her squeezable breasts and her shorn nether lips until Nard awoke in a deep sweat a short time later.

****

Three raps with the ornate doorknocker inspired an approaching, merry sounding song. Nard stood on a stoop that was surrounded by a blanket of colorful flowers, stretching out to Etaeli's high wooden fence. Dividing the garden was a paved driveway that had, on its tail-end, a parking area large enough for three pods.

The lock unlatched. The door opened. Etaeli smiled despite his surprise.

"Nard, old friend! Well, this is certainly unexpected. Isn't this normally bedhour for you?"

Nard half-smiled in return. "Normally. But I have to talk to you."

"Hm, well come in."

Nard followed Etaeli inside. The Elf was dressed in a shimmering robe, made of a special fabric that sparkled when it caught the sun's rays. For bottoms he wore tan colored breeches. His feet were bare. His silvery hair was tied in a ponytail, a style which accented his pointy ears.

In contrast to Nard's home Etaeli's was cluttered, but understandably so. Etaeli was an Elf obsessed with his work to the point of impressiveness or worry. As his job was composing and selling songs and poems, he spent his waking hours scribbling ideas in his strewn about notebooks. The front door opened into the living area, where the floor was littered and bookshelves dominated the walls.

"I was just working on a new composition," Etaeli said as he sat on the couch, "though my muse is lax this noon, I would say."

He gestured. "Sit. Please."

Nard did so. Etaeli raised a glass of red liquid.

"Kwaid wine?" Etaeli offered. "I just squeezed a batch, fresh from the garden."

"Please," Nard responded.

Kwaid 'wine' is not alcoholic. It is squeezed from large red 'kwaid fruits,' a staple of many gardens. One squeezes the juice into a pitcher, mixes it with water and lets it cool in a preserver.

Etaeli went to his kitchen, visible from the living room. "Rhetorical question, perhaps. No one in this town makes better kwaid wine than myself."

He poured Nard a glass and brought it to him. "I've even considered selling my kwaid fruit for secondary income."

Nard took a drink of the sugary liquid. "I've never tasted better."

"Indeed not," Etaeli agreed, "but let us talk of this urgent matter."

"I went in the woods this morn," Nard began. "After patrol. I had seen something suspicious on the way home. So I returned to the same spot and walked into the forest. I ran into...a woman."

Behind Etaeli's raised glass was a grin. "Finally moved on from your Shadow Patrol Mate, then?"

"No, this was different. She was..." He cleared his throat. "...nude."

Etaeli was intrigued. "Nude, you say?"

"Yes, completely," Nard clarified. "I thought she'd been assaulted so I offered to call for help. She insisted she was alright. A-and there was something else. She kept referring to 'my kind.' As if she wasn't human."

Concern crossed Etaeli's features. "And you met this woman in Tanglewood, correct?"

"Yes. Why? Do you know something?"

"Perhaps I do. But can you provide any other details?"

"She was beautiful," Nard recalled. "Stunningly beautiful. She spoke Standard, and very eloquently. When I started walking back, I turned around and she was gone."

"Wow," Etaeli whispered in bemusement. "In Tanglewood, of all places. I thought they were long since driven from this plane."

The Elf's response alerted Nard. "What is it, Etaeli?"

"Nard, my friend...you may have met a nymph."

Nard raised an eyebrow. "A...what?"

Etaeli got up to visit his bookshelf.

"They're part of an ancient Elven legend..."

He browsed his large collection for the right tome.

"...very ancient, going back before humankind was even brought to Fenza."

Etaeli returned to his seat and flipped through the book. "Whenever nature was in perfect harmony, free of corruption, bloodshed and darkness, the forces would align to weave an image of perfect beauty."

He found the sought page. "Ah. Here. Wow, this would predate even the coming of demons. 'One could only get close enough to watch them frolic and play in the forests. To approach would be foolhardy. So beautiful were they that a single glimpse of them would risk one falling madly in love. A depressing notion, for if one pursued the nymphs he would be duly punished.'"

Etaeli put the book on the coffee table. Nard leaned over to see. There was an inked sketch of a beautiful naked woman. Unlike the one Nard had seen, this one had Elven ears.

"You see, these creations were also the undisputed guardians of their territories," Etaeli went on. "They wielded all the merciful and terrible power of nature and were masters of the elements. Those who journeyed into their forests or waters had best carry hearts of air with them, for these nymphs trusted very few."

"You're using the past tense," Nard noted.

"I am. The legends go on to say that when Qalech tainted the world, the Shadows disrupted nature's harmony and tore the nymphs from their dwellings."

He paused, and then continued. "The Shadows are as prevalent in Tanglewood as anywhere else in the world. The fact that a nymph exists under such conditions...frankly it astounds me. There must be something very special about that place. Any smidgen of Shadow and your nymph would not be there."

"We've never patrolled there," Nard stated.

"Never?" Etaeli asked.

"Not in the three years since I graduated the Shadow Academy."

"That is quite telling." His tone became somber. "Nard, I must relay upon you a sobering point. Were you to fall for this nymph, and that it is a strong possibility, you must understand that she cannot leave that area. When the nymphs of old were forced from their forests by the Shadows, as I stated, they died. So, too, would she. Unless you plan to move into the woodlands in a way that does not disturb the balance, you cannot have a relationship with this nymph."

Nard finished the last of his kwaid wine. "I hadn't planned on it."

Etaeli finished his as well. "You say that now, and I trust your judgment in most matters. But a nymph is a force beyond what you have come to understand."

Nard weighed his Elven friend's words.

The Elf rotated and studied his empty glass. "Something else about your account was telling as well. As I said, nymphs are very protective of their territories. Very few sentients are allowed to get within viewing distance. For you to have gotten so close without either scaring the nymph away or feeling her wrath says something about you."

"What's that?" Nard was desperate to know.

Etaeli's worried face broke into a warm smile. "It says that you have a heart clearer and cleaner than still water. This figure glimpsed it in your soul."

"I doubt I'm that pure," Nard gently argued.

"For a nymph to carry on a conversation with you, dear Nard, indicates the highest purity. It warms my heart but it is troubling."

"Troubling how?"

Etaeli's eyes opened to wide saucers. "Because in all likelihood this nymph favors you. And if that is so, what will you do then, Nard? How will you proceed?"

****

Stingers and Kickers were equipped with silencers. This was an absolute necessity amongst the Shadow Patrol, as Shadowspawn were sensitive to sound. Not only did the silencers muffle the firing mechanisms, they quieted the energy projectiles whenever they collided with objects.

Tonight the forest was filled with clicks and the screams of dying or attacking 'Hangers,' Shadowspawn which resembled hairless, decaying monkeys. They were agile terrors and tagging one required a good shot. They favored moving rather than attacking, but had a nasty habit of sinking their claws into deep flesh. Were they determined, not even SP armor kept them out.

Then there were the Jelrins, floating blobs of translucent purple abominations. They had to be fired upon in rapid succession, deluded to nothing, lest they instantly regenerate themselves. To deal with the Jelrins a section of Kicker-wielding Mates had been split from the main squad.

A Hanger hissed; Nard aimed and fired, no time to plan. The yellow orb broke against a tree and the Hanger went leaping to another branch. Nard ignored it to focus on another as it sailed through the air for a facial attack. This time he caught the Hanger mid-leap. It screamed and vanished in a puff of black smoke.

Two Jelrins approached from the east. Ulily commanded the energy riflemen to fire upon one and then the other. When they'd diminished the first, the Mates had fallen back so the second wouldn't overtake them.

Ocolla took three Hangers that lurked in the treetops. Pre missed one and cursed. In his anger he dispatched two others.

The Jelrins seemed to be gone for the night. The Kicker squad merged with the main one. Ulily noticed the abundance of Hangers that had joined the festivities.

"Alright, friends. I want two teams, evened out. Divide up and conquer. Stingers only."

The clicks went wild. The air lit up. Hangers fell and faded before they hit the ground. A small army rushed in from the east, which Nard's team was covering. Hangers were easier to dispatch from the ground.

Somewhere during the assault, Nard's ears alerted him. Ocolla's Stinger no longer clicked. A Hanger was upon her. She had no time to react.

"Ocolla!" Nard yelled. He tackled her; the Hanger missed. The two Mates fell in the dirt together. Nard turned his body and fired at a closing monstrosity and then separated from Ocolla.

"Are you alright?"

"Nard, behind you!" she yelled.

Terrible pain erupted from Nard's side.

"Son of a thousand whoring men!" Pre exclaimed after neutralizing the Hanger. "Man fallen here!"

Nard's eyes were closed. Warm fluid poured over his fingers where he clutched the wound.

"Someone transmod a medic!" he heard Vae demand.

The clicking continued.

"I...I'll be fine," Nard wheezed.

"Not with a wound like that!" Ocolla said through the blackness.

"HQ, this is Mate Vae. We've a man injured. Mate Nard, ma'am. Yes. No. But hurry."

****

A Hanger's claw could also be poisonous, and unfortunately Nard had been attacked by a venomous Type B. At the medical center he was prescribed an antidote that had a debilitating side-effect. He spent the rest of the night and the next afternoon in a state of delirium.

When Nard regained his senses it was night and he was in a hospital bed. He was clad in a loose-fitting hospital gown. Thick bandages were on his abdomen.

"He's come to. Get the medic," a male voice said.

Etaeli approached Nard's bedside.

"Don't fidget," the Elf said gently. "You are likely still dizzy from the counter-venom."