Lady Winter

"What trespasses upon my domain?" Her voice was dangerously calm. It resonated through him with such power that he felt his knees weaken and his heart begin to race. A viciously sharp edge hung at the edge of its strange melody.

William looked about quickly for any signs of trespassing. Then the penny dropped and he turned back to her, not without summoning a great deal of courage to do so.

"My n-name is William." The slight stutter in his voice was borne out of fear rather than the temperature.

"What is a William?" She asked with an edge of impatience that he did not like at all.

"What am I? I'm a man." He sure as hell hoped he still was at any rate.

"A man? A human? I have not had a human in my kingdom for millennia. Perhaps you are not what you say you are. Perhaps I should dig inside you and find out what makes you." Her hand raised in a smooth graceful gesture and he caught sight of her wickedly razor edged fingernails.

"No! No. Please. I am a man and...is this what happens when you die?" He couldn't keep the question restrained within him any longer.

The beautiful creature tilted her head sharply at a slight angle as he asked her his question. There was a brief pause in which her expression remained hard and otherwise unreadable.

"It is what happens when you die." She finally answered.

He didn't quite know what to do with that.

"How did you arrive in my domain?" She asked when he didn't say anything further.

Well that was a hell of a question wasn't it? He almost didn't remember. It was all a blur. There was cold, then he was hit by something and there was pain. Then there were voices. He couldn't remember what they said. Finally he remembered the water. Water and darkness.

"I think I drowned. They..." His memory was hazy. The figures in the dark. They did something. "...they threw me into a river. They hit me with their car and threw me into a freezing river."

The words weren't spoken with the anger that was rightfully his. Instead there was simply shock and a sorrowful detachment from his fate. It hadn't been a nice way to die.

She watched him closely, her statuesque nudity showing no hint of modesty as she stood before him. His explanation met her ears and she considered it before her deep blue lips moved to speak again.

"There were once ways here from the worlds of men. Ways for the souls of the sinful to fall into my realm. Passages such as these were used long ago by wise men to sacrifice souls to me in the hopes I would spare their homes from the frost and the cold. I had thought all such passages were closed. Apparently I was wrong." Her steely gaze lowered over him.

Here he was stood next to her in all her naked glory and he was the one who felt self conscious. In the years since his wife had passed away he'd developed a small but notable belly that swelled out over the hem of his work jeans. A thick woollen sweater hid most of his physical inadequacies but her gaze still made him nervous.

"Who are you?" The question had been hanging on the tip of his tongue since he first laid eyes upon her.

"I..." Her sapphire eyes locked back upon his. "...am the daughter of Mother Nature and Old Father Time. You may call me Lady Winter."

William swallowed a dry mouthful of air. Oh boy.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do." He finally admitted.

"I'm not sure what to do with you." The Lady conceded.

"Well, what did you use the souls that once came here for?" His eyes shifted slightly to look around the room for any sign of them.

"I shaped them into creatures more suited to my domain and set them to building my realm. But that was long ago and they are long since spent as my city has long since fallen." She turned away from him and stepped over to her throne.

He watched the sinful sway of her hips and couldn't help but lower his eyes to the pleasing swell of her firm heart shaped bottom. Stifling the urge to lick his lips, he instead shut his eyes tightly and then opened them when he'd regained control of himself. The Lady was stood beside her throne regarding its shape as she ran her fingers over the long icicles that jutted outward in a mantle over the back of the great chair.

"Am I...er...are you going to shape me into one of these creatures?" He didn't particularly like the sound of that but not knowing what his fate was had begun to steadily gnaw at his sanity.

"I don't think so. My power here is dwindling. The ice that you shattered was my last enchantment. It was made to slow down my decline and keep me preserved until the great winter came once more. Now I will wither here until the snows outside melt and my home crumbles into the nothingness from whence it came. There will be nothing left in all the realms but heat and fire." She didn't seem all that phased by the prospect of her apparent inevitable doom.

"Oh. I see." Apparently Will was one of the few individuals who could ever say that the act of dying resulted in a frying pan to fire situation. "Is there anything I can do?"

The melodic peal of laughter from the woman's lips echoed through the great hall at such a simple question. It even made her turn away from her throne to look upon him once again.

"Are you a god?" She inquired.

"Not when I last checked." Will grumbled with annoyance at being laughed at.

"Then no, little mortal. There is nothing you can do to stop my demise. Fear not for any of those who you may have cared for in life. The Earth has plenty of ice and it will take it a few generations to melt and consume your world." She assured him in a way that wasn't entirely all that reassuring.

"Can't you remake the enchantment?" He looked at the throne where she'd been so pristinely preserved as if it might have an 'on' button.

"No. It took a great deal of my power to cast it and that is power I no longer have." She said before retaking her seat upon the throne.

"So this is it? We just sit here and wait for all this to fall on our heads?" Will looked up at the massive ceiling of the hall. He didn't like the sound of that plan. "What happens then? Do I die again?"

"Your body died in my river. Your soul will end here." She calmly informed him.

"Great. Just great." Letting out a long breath, the man slumped down on one of the stairs that led up to the throne. He settled his face into his hands and shook his head, not quite able to believe his god awful luck.

"Why do you care?" She asked.

"I care because I liked being human. I liked Earth. I'd like more people to have the chance to like it too." He muttered before lifting his head up and looking back across the hall to the vast open doors and the white snow beyond.

"I do not think I could reshape you even if I did have the power." The Lady surmised after a long moment of silence.

William turned his head to look at her and felt the ache in his body as he saw that stunning form again.

"Why? Am I that much of a stubborn old bastard?"

"No. You are a good man. Those cast into my realm before were always sinners. Sinners are easier to shape for their souls are weak. They can be cracked open and the power within can be reaped. You are not a sinner. You have lived your life as a good man. That is much more difficult to break apart. Stronger." Her voice carried a note of faint admiration. "I was not shaped this way before. Your presence here has changed my realm. It has changed me. There are not many who could do that."

"What did you look like before you looked like this?" Will's curiosity peaked once again.

"I was a frozen storm." Apparently turning from a force of nature into an incredibly attractive female was merely akin to replacing a pair of socks to the Lady.

"Oh. Ok then." What did you even say to that?

"Why am I like this? Your soul must have had a hand in it. Not that I am complaining. This body is not entirely unpleasant." Her hand lifted for her gaze to look upon its form and shape. She then testingly wiggled her fingers and softly stroked down over her own cheek and along her collar bone.

Will watched the movement, entranced by her beauty and the appealing way her fingers moved over that radiant blue flesh.

"I don't know." No, that was a lie. He was just too embarrassed to admit it. With a little shake of his head and a nervous pinch of his beard, he looked at her again. "I mean I don't know how I even managed to change the way you looked but...you're beautiful. I mean if my soul knew that there was only one other person here to talk to..."

"I am not a person." The Lady gently but firmly corrected him.

"Ok well then if my soul had any influence in making a companion I suppose it'd shape a companion that I'd...er...like the look of." If he still had any blood his head would likely have exploded with the amount of it that would have been burning his cheeks right about then. "So why is your power leaving you?" He quickly tried to change the subject and immediately regretted doing so. That was not a question that was likely to get him on her good side...if she even had a good side.

"It leaves me because I am a fool." She breathed with obvious malcontent in her voice. "Long ago when humanity knew me for who I truly was they knew to fear me. They feared my cold and gave me the souls of their damned to shape my kingdom in the hope that I would be gentle with their weak little homes and brittle food supplies. I fed on their fear and crafted those souls into a realm of my making. I weaved great storms and kept them cold and afraid. It...it flattered my ego to be feared and worshipped. Then time passed and they built houses of stone whilst making fires to keep me at bay. The advancement of mankind was my downfall. In your time I am not even known, let alone feared. My cold is nothing to your shelters. You heat your world and keep me at bay. Soon winter will be all but dead and I along with it."

"I'm sorry." Will said as the Lady finished.

"You would not have been sorry if you knew me then." The hard edge to her features was reduced and it almost seemed as if the Lady was having a pang of guilt for her actions.

"I relied too much upon fear and sacrifice. I grew to depend upon it rather than to stay true to my nature. I am paying the price."

"And you're not the only one." Will added.

It was strange to not to feel any anger at her for her actions. Then again he hadn't been there at the time. She looked so lost and so very alone there in her frozen home that it was difficult to feel any antagonism toward her. Perhaps that was also part of the reason his soul had influenced her shape in the way it had. He'd always found it far too easy to forgive people of their sins.

"I have never properly talked with a human before. You are not what I expected." She tilted her head slightly and watched him closely.

"What did you expect?"

"More yelling." She simply answered.

It was William's turn to burst out laughing then. It was a deep noise that filled the cold hall with a cheer it had never known until then. The sound wasn't lost upon the Lady who felt a sudden desire to hear more of it. That was not normal. She was cold, she was cruel and she did not enjoy laughter. Not until now.

"Well I've always been a strange one." Will said as he regained control of himself. "Nothing like dying to give you some perspective. It's not like I was far off my time anyway and I don't have much left to lose. There's no point in screaming my head off or acting like an idiot." He put his hands on his thighs, his words reassuring himself as he'd spoken them.

"No, I don't imagine there is." She said.

"So...what do I do now?"

"Wait."

"That's it? Just wait until the world falls apart?" That sounded very boring.

"Yes."

"How long will it take?"

"Here? Millions upon millions of years. Time passes slower in my realm than it does in yours." She casually informed him before crossing one long slender leg over the other and leaning to one side in a languid pose that brought fresh new delights of her shapely frame to his gaze.

"Ok then. Is there anything to do here to pass the time whilst I wait?" Was it too much to hope that the ice castle in the realm of Lady Winter had access to a TV?

"I'm not entirely sure. What exactly do you do with yourselves?" She asked as she inclined her head to one side and showed off the pretty blue contours of her slender neck.

"We watch TV, play games, listen to music...all kinds of things." He shrugged and hoped she might offer a suggestion. "Do you have any clothes?"

"I have what you made for me. Is this not how you would expect to see a human queen?"

"You're a little bit naked." He blinked.

"I'd noticed. I do not need to keep warm." Her explanation puzzled him for a moment before he realised what she meant.

"Oh, well yeah, we wear clothes to keep warm but it's also to stop us from seeing each other...y'know....butt naked." Will scratched his cheek. His eyes suddenly didn't seem to know where to look.

"Really? I had always thought that you wore clothes for me." She seemed slightly hurt that modesty played a role in getting dressed rather than simply keeping away her cold.

"Well yeah. We tend to wear more clothes in winter or we freeze." He offered in the hope of reassuring her.

"Your soul forged my appearance, human. So if you wanted me to be dressed then I would be." She lifted her nose to look down along its length at him.

"It's just a little bit distracting." Will was quickly regretting raising the subject.

"I am sorry you do not find me pleasant to look upon." She didn't sound sorry in the slightest. In fact she sounded a lot like she might turn him into an ice pop at any minute.

"No! No it's not that. It's er... quite the opposite actually." He was trying desperately not to peek at her breasts.

"Oh?" The admission certainly piqued her interest as her beautifully lined black eyebrows raised in a distinctive expression of pleasant surprise. "You find me too appealing?"

"Well it's difficult to concentrate on what I should be concentrating on with you all naked like that." He admitted somewhat sheepishly.

"What are you trying to concentrate upon?" She shifted again and turned from haughty to enticing as she leaned her upper body forward and rested her bare arm across her lap.

"Y'know...being dead?" Wow. Real smooth, Will.

"No. This is interesting. I have never been admired in such a way before." She quickly shifted the subject back on track. "Tell me more."

As Will was wondering just how in the hell he'd managed to get himself into the situation he currently inhabited, the woman pushed herself up from the throne to stand and approach him again. He'd been sat at an angle with his back turned and his head shifted toward her and her sudden movement made him quickly jolt upright to face her and take a step back. There was a very hungry look in those icy blue eyes of hers that frightened the hell out of him.

"Do you like my face? No...my face isn't what you try not to look upon." The light sway of her hips as she walked toward him moved in a steady scintillating rhythm. Her hands lifted to run her fingertips over the great swells of her soft cushy tits and Will licked his lips whilst taking another step backwards. "These? Are these what make you nervous?" She grasped those ripe globes and squeezed gently. Will watched as her eyes closed at the sensation and her body gave a little twitch when she gently pinched her own bare nipples.

Will's jaw practically bounced off the floor as he stood there in stunned reveration for the exquisite female so shamelessly displaying herself for him. Delighted, Lady Winter pressed forward as she felt some all too human pleasure sizzling through her chilled veins.

"This is really inappropriate." Will murmured as he watched her close the distance between them.

"Why?" The lady asked as she peered at him and gently lowered her hands to press her bare tits up against his chest. Electric sensations crackled through her as her flesh met the firmness of his broad muscle beneath his

"It's just not done." His tone didn't quite match his words. It was somewhat dazed and pleasantly confused.

"Why not?" Her hand lifted and he felt her fingertips slowly tease their way along his jaw line. He felt like he was frozen to the spot.

"We hardly know each other!" He spluttered for sense and found none.

The beautiful lady laughed at his pitiful attempts at maintaining decency in a thoroughly indecent situation.

"We are all that we have for the foreseeable future William. Your presence here forces me into this shape and I haven't the power to change it. This body and this mind you have given me will soon grow tired as time rakes by so slowly. I no longer have the patience of a glacier and you wouldn't want me to become temperamental." She offered the steady little warning on a cool breath.

"Er...no. I definitely don't want that." He agreed.

"Then you will show me how humans admire each other. I believe it begins with the lips making contact?" She inquired in a way that definitely made William reconsider the idea that he'd landed in a frozen hell.

With lightly trembling hands, he reached up to stroke his fingers over her sides and across her lower back. He felt the swell at her hips that he knew all too well led down into the beautifully proportioned bare bottom beneath. She felt like smooth cool glass that shaped and quivered beneath his touch as he timidly pulled her against him. The chill of her breath on his lips made him shiver in a way that the snow and the ice all around them never could have. With a sudden rallying of his courage, he tilted his head slightly and closed his eyes as his lips sought out hers. The first contact between those silken seams felt like a jolt of energy that coursed through him and thought gave way to instinct as he kissed Lady Winter.

The bristles of his whiskers tickled at her as she felt him show her just how beautiful he thought she was in the most addictively intimate fashion. The sensation of his lips upon hers drew forth a surge of longing from within her new human shape and she quickly returned the kiss by mimicking the gentle rhythm of the sensual caress.

It had begun as a timid albeit genuine gesture but as her arms lifted up to wrap about his shoulders his confidence surged and he teased her lips open enough to playfully flick the tip of his tongue against hers. This new offering plunged the dynamic of the kiss from gentle and tender to downright scintillating. The woman wanted more of that touch and she quickly meshed her tongue against his as he pulled her naked shapely form against him tightly. Both participants soon found that they couldn't get enough of each other.

For the Lady the sensation was completely unaccustomed to anything she'd ever known. The only thing she had to compare it to was the eye of the storm as pleasure and serenity filled her whilst all around her she felt the roar in her ears and the inevitable oncoming hurricane of desire. What's more there was power in this act. That power buzzed through her frozen body and reminded her of her lost glory whilst holding out the promise of delights and wonders she'd never before been able to comprehend.

William was experiencing an altogether different set of pleasures as he felt the unique sensation of a kiss that crackled with frosty lust. The usual rush of heat fell to the wayside in the Lady's realm and was replaced instead with a pleasantly invigorating sensation that wasn't entirely dissimilar to sticking one's head in a bucket of ice cold water on a hot musty day. It wasn't natural to find such pleasure in the cold for humans are naturally warm blooded and so the alien sensation carried an enchanting allure. She was learning the dance of the kiss all too quickly and he found familiarity rushing back in a touch he'd thought he'd left behind long ago.