Lost to the Woods

This is a bit of a romance, if you just want the sex stuff go to end and backtrack, that's where most of it is. This is my first time writing anything so sorry if it's bad!

Mary

I thought I had managed to escape.

Yes, the council of elders had chosen me for the sacrifice, that luckily was no surprise. For the deal they made with the Demon of the forest, to keep the monsters at bay, every 20 years a woman was chosen and shunned, placed in the woods with no ability to return to her home, to be eaten by them, or so the men of our village told us.

When I was in my adolescence, our low standing, my 'bad' attitude, and general appearance had already made it clear that I would probably never marry. My mother, with all her outsider's wisdom, had pulled me aside and let me know that as the family with the least money and the most surviving children, 9 brothers and sisters with me being the 7th, an unlucky number in my village, that when The Day came, I would likely be chosen. So, I prepared. I took up hunting, and even fishing when I could. I learned from my father the best way to use the land to cultivate food as well as which wild plants were edible. I scraped and scrambled, trying my damnedest to learn all that I could so when the time came I would be able to survive in those woods. I didn't believe in the monsters. I knew that the real monsters were the men of the town.

My own mother, from the south which is what gave her, her own lovely brown skin, and thick curling mane that she usually wore down her back in a plait, had said the men of her town had been much the same. Though they had never made a devil's bargain with the monster of their woods. Her town had sent boys out the kill the monsters and bring them back as a feast and as a test of the young one's manhood, though she later admitted that the boys mostly brought back deer and stories of monsters in the dark.

When she and her own father started traveling from township to township meeting people and selling wares my mother had thought it was her calling. When she met my father, a soft man with blue eyes and red hair, after the death of her father, he had been killed in the very woods she had been traversing, she had thought that this was fate. I remember when she learned about what happened here every 20 years, she had done her best to prepare me and let me practice what I had learned. I also remembered that poor woman, a widower whose husband had died and left before they could have children. She had been dragged out of her house and pushed to the woods. She had not left in the allotted time and therefore anything she might have brought was forfeit. She had screamed and screamed, and we had heard her crying for days, and then one day it just stopped. The family that moved on to her property seemed unbothered by what had happened to its previous owner.

Though I had prepared, I feared being chosen, being cast out. I had been around people all my life, never having even a single moment of privacy. The idea of being truly alone in the world made me act crazy, take risks. With every day that we got closer to the 20-year anniversary I began to become wilder, trying harder to make a place for myself. Even with the way some of the men treated their women, I looked at my father and his smiles and kisses, the way he loved and admired my mother, and I wanted that as well. I'd even take the huge family, if it came to that. My mother told me that her grandfather had made a deal with a creature of the woods and because of that none of the women of our line ever died in childbirth. So, I slept with many of the boys of the town, hoping against hope that maybe one would take a shine to me. None of them ever did. I even went so far as to beg one of the old men who helped make the decisions to take me, use me, just as long as I wasn't cast out.

He had me tits down bent over his table rubbing his grubby cock around the outside of my hole before I had even finished my plea. I couldn't get wet, so he simply spit on his hand rubbed it on his pole and rammed it into me. He worked me hard, his cock thrusting and pounding. He whispered nasty things in my ears, about me being a whore with a tight hole. Saying that maybe since my cunt was so nice, he'd convince the others to let me stay, if all of the council could use me. I whimpered and took it, even starting to enjoy in after a few minutes, but before I could cum, he pulled out and came all over my tunic. As pissed as I was, I went straight home and washed the jizz off my shirt and prayed that it would be enough. That maybe just maybe they would let me stay.

Then in my 25th year I was chosen. The shock of hearing that gaggle of old men call my name, even with the forewarning, was enough to set my heart racing, my legs weak and shaking. The old man I'd let have me just smiled slyly. I knew then that he had voted for me, it hadn't mattered what I done to try to stay. Still, my father wept, his tears wetting my tunic when I hugged him goodbye. But while I was packing and saying my goodbyes my mother whispered to me about the next town over. To the west, following the sunset, it would take me weeks to get there, but she knew that I would be able to do it. She followed me out of our house, shushing my siblings when their cries became too loud, telling me all she knew from her own time in those woods, when she had been a traveler, before she had happened to fall in love with my own soft father.

"Keep following the sunset. The brightest light in the sky points to the north and you can find the west from there but do your best not to travel at night. There are things that live in those woods, and they all hunt at night. Don't trust anyone, please." My mother brushed my dark curly hair from my face, braided or not it always came out, as if by its own will. Now her eyes were finally glittering with unshed tears, but I never saw them fall. With a nod of my head, I tugged my pack on to my shoulders and never looked back the bastards who would shun me for being poor, for being skilled, for looking like my mother when all the rest of my siblings favored my father. The ones who would use me and still cast me aside like weeks old bread. I walked into those dark woods with my head held high and I knew with all this that I was finally free of this town, no longer would I have to grovel for the hope that maybe one day they'd keep me. The worst had happened and now I would find my own path.

Cedar

I could smell her before I ever saw her. That wild scent, mature but still young, a tangle of flowers and heat. Penetrated, but not taken, I wanted to bathe in that scent. Of course, I knew of some of the towns barbaric traditions of sending people, usually women, out into the woods. Some of the larger towns do it every year, but the smaller ones tend to not be able to spare as many people. It makes no sense; humans travel through the woods with little conflict, so why turn people out? But I've been around humans enough to know that most will do anything to keep the little bits of power they accumulate over the course of their lives. And as for the deals these humans made to send people out into the woods every so often, those deals were made long before my time, by creatures much more nefarious than I could ever be.

I followed her for miles. She was heading west and while her pack looked heavy, I liked the way the weight sat on her. It made her look strong, like she could carry many young and survive to tell the tell. The last woman this town had thrown in the woods had wept and screamed and begged. With the magic circling the town though, once she had been cast out, she could not return, such is the deal that was struck. Honestly, she had been so loud, I think she had frightened away some of the bigger things that may have wanted to eat her. I could even hear her in my home miles away. I remember when the screaming stopped. She must have been taken by ogres, they never much care how loud something is, as long as it can be brought to their underground lairs.

After the woman I smelled had walked for hours, she stopped to piss on a tree and make camp and it was all I could do not to roll around in her scent. So young and virile, strong, and intoxicating, I knew then and there that I would have her, no matter the cost. My cock hard in my breeches as I watched her set up her camp, I rubbed myself looking at her, listening to her gently hum a tune I didn't recognize, but I found pleasant none the less. My hand wrapped around my cock I pretended it was her own. I closed my eyes as I imagined her firm tits heaving with my heavy thrusts. Her ass in the air as I pounded into her ripe pussy again and again. I knew she'd be able to take it. She'd be so lovely and tight. Beating my cock furiously, I could smell her on the wind and my knot began to swell as I got closer and closer to cumming. Gods, I was going to have this woman, just being near her was making my pheromones go crazy. I came on the tree in the same spot she'd pissed, so that any other creatures that happened upon her scent marking would smell mine too and know that she was taken, claimed, even if she didn't know it yet.

I wanted to take her, but it seemed too much trouble to hit her over the head and take her back to my home. The idea of keeping her tied up and staked to the floor might work in the short term but in the long term, I wanted someone to mother my children, not shun them. I watched her as she ate a meager amount that was cold and smelled like old bread, then she laid down on the forest floor and with the smell of the seasonal rains in the air, slowly as plan started to take shape in my mind.

Mary

I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. As I walked, made camp, ate, it was all I could do not to keep looking wildly around myself, so paranoid that someone was watching me. Even when I finally laid down on the forest floor, fire to my back and my blankets wrapped around me, I felt as if I could feel something out of sight just waiting for me to... I don't know what. I kept telling myself that I feared being alone, even though I had prepared for this, it's still hard to leave and know that I could never return home. Hell, I'd tried so hard to stay and no one had wanted me, except for my family, the shame of it was enough to make me want to weep. But I promised myself years ago that when I was picked I would not scream and cry the way the widow had, and so far I had kept that promise to myself and I was not going to ruin that now. So, taking a deep breath, I made myself curl into my blankets and fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming of monsters in the dark creeping around me.

The next morning, I began to gather my camp gear and roll my blankets. I could tell from the clouds and the smell of the air that rain was coming, and it would be upon me soon. It was the time of year for the cold heavy rains that allowed for such thick forest to grow. Of course, my shit little town would throw their women out when the weather was poor. I was grumbling about the rain when I heard a twig snap in the forest behind me and I swung around tracing the sound knife in hand, ready to use it on whatever monster had come for me. What I saw when I swung to meet the threat was not a monster but a man.

He was big, bigger than my father or any of the men from my village, and even still when he saw the knife, his hands went into the air. A universal signal showing you're unarmed. As I looked him over, I could see that he was smiling and that made me even more nervous, it's been my experience that men don't smile at things that they see as threats. "Get the fuck out of here." It was the only thing I could think of saying. This huge man may have been handsome, but I wasn't trying to lose my life over some stale bread and old blankets, better to let him know up front that I was no easy mark.

"Woah! I was just walking through, and I heard you getting your stuff together, I thought I'd see if you wanted to some companionship for your journey." His hands were still raised, and I took that to mean that my face and body were giving the signals I had hoped.

"No thank you, I sure I'll be fine on my own." I kept my knife out extended far from my body, ready to slice him if he got too close.

The stranger's eyebrows reached for his hairline, "In these woods? Gods bless you for your courage, but even I try to find someone to travel with me if I can. It's dangerous out here and there's safety in numbers."

This man was wickedly handsome. Deep set, pulled, dark eyes, olive skin, and black hair worn long and lose down his back, even his thick black beard was trimmed close enough for me to see his squared jaw and massive Adams apple. He looked unlike anyone I had ever met before. But still even in my small town if a man was properly good-looking, he had his pick of partners. Thinking about how all those boys and later men had either turned up their noses at me or slept with me and then demanded that I stayed quiet as to not upset their chances with whichever neighbors' daughter, made me feel a bit easier around this man. I was not easy prey, and he was much too good-looking to not be able to find a willing partner of his own.

I noticed then two gold rings on the fourth finger of his left hand and felt even easier, he was married, which meant that he probably didn't have any designs on me, other than a travel companion, and after feeling so terrified of the forest a little company I could welcome. I lowered my knife, something about him just seemed to disarm me. "I don't need a companion." The words of rejection were out of my mouth before I could stop myself, after all better safe than sorry. I began to finish gathering the items of my camp. I needed to get going before the rain set in. Even as I worked, I could feel his eyes on me, watching and calculating, then he turned and walked off without so much as a word of good luck.

Cedar

My skin itched as I walked ahead of her, it always itched when my pheromones were working hard, but walking up wind of her I knew that she would be taking in my scent and her own hormones would be responding. I could smell the rain in the air and knew we were within running distance of my home. Usually, I try to stay in my animal form as my human body is clumsy and hard to wield, why use two legs when you can move faster on four, but I wanted her to be mine and I knew from firsthand experience that humans can be prejudice to things that they've not encountered before. As I tripped over every little thing in my path, some on purpose to insure she could hear me and follow the path I was laying out for her, I heard her beginning to catch up with me and I let it happen. This approach of a bumbling idiot had worked for me in the past, even if it was a little humiliating. When she caught up to me, I found that I could not stay silent for long with her near me. It made me feel like an adolescent.

"So, what brings you this way?" I could smell her. She was in the middle of her heat cycle. My cock began to stiffen, and I found myself shifting it trying to keep it from full attention.

"I'm going to the next town, to start a trade." She didn't even look at me when she said it and if I were human maybe I would have even bought it, but I could smell the lie in the air.

"Is that so? I'm headed that way too, for much the same thing, although I just need to buy some supplies." It was even the truth, when I wasn't hunting, I painted and the town she was headed to was renowned for its paints and dyes.

She grunted at that and did not speak again. I stopped for lunch, and I was sure that she was going to walk on without me, make me hunt her again. "I'd be willing to share some of my soup and stale bread for your company." With a bit of hesitation, she stopped too. I shot her a smile and when I got an eye roll, I knew that she was there to stay.

She dumped her heavy pack on the ground and watched me while I built up a fire and then got out my pot to heat the soup. Rabbit stew and old bread, it might not have been a gourmet meal, but the way she tore into it I could tell that she was past caring. Just as we were finishing, I felt the first drops of rain hit me and I put out a silent thank you to the gods old and new for giving me an in for my plan to work.

"It's starting to rain." Again, she grunted at the statement. I thought after feeding her she'd be more amenable, but apparently not. Like a gift from the gods, it went from a drizzle to a downpour in just a few minutes, before we even had our packs on good. "I know a place that is dry, it might not be warm but it's definitely dry." I had to shout to be heard over the downpour. I could see she was going to say no, to carry on without me, but when there was lightning and then a crack of thunder immediately following my words, her shoulders sagged in defeat. She nodded and followed behind me.

Mary

Gods damn it all, would I never be rid of this man? Clumsy walker that he had been when I had been following behind him in the woods, it seemed the rain had given him a good reason to hurry along and be a bit more graceful. His long legs carried him farther, much faster than I could walk and I was afraid for a moment that I would lose him in the woods. That I'd be forced to go back on the path and slog in this downpour and sleep in the mud for I had little in the way of tents or trappings. I had to lightly jog to keep up and by the time we got a rundown cottage, I was huffing and panting from jogging with my pack on. Even so, the smell that seemed to come from him as I followed behind him, it was starting to make my mouth water.

When he opened the door and walked inside, I couldn't see because it was dark, but I was grateful to find that at least it was dry. I placed my pack on the ground outside the door, under a little awning. I grabbed some of my clean dry clothes and left my pack outside to dry. This deep in the woods it was nothing but me this man and possible monsters. What he didn't know was that I didn't have that much food in my bag to start with, 9 kids meant there was never much food to go around let alone leftovers for their soon to be outcast sister, particularly when the denial had been so strong amongst them, so I'd done the best with what I had. It's why I couldn't turn down this man's meal. The fact that it turned out to be tasty as hell was just an added bonus.

I again watched him make fire, this time lighting the hearth and bringing some much-needed warmth and light to this little cottage in the woods. The walls outside had been vividly green even in the gray of the torrential downpour and inside it was a bit dingy, but the walls were painted a lovely yellow. There was a bed, soft but not overly large, and a chair made of solid wood. There was also a little cabinet that after some investigation I realized held 2 wine cups, some plates, and bowls. Even a bit of cutlery. There were odd bottles with labels in a language I couldn't read, but when I opened one it seemed to just be oil of some kind, so I put it back.

"Is this place yours?" I tried to keep that accusation from my voice, but it was obvious that someone lived there. And after all the years and all the stories about what happened in the woods, it was hard to believe a place like this was left alone, to stand in the woods unharmed.

"Oh, it's an old hunting lodge. It's not mine, but a lot of us who travel these wooded roads use it when the weathers shit or some other such nonsense." He kept working while he talked. Moving with a grace and ease that seemed out of place after the ruckus he had caused in the forest. When he stopped crouching and stood up at full height, he towered over me and seemed to fill the cottage up, leaving little space for me to move around in. He noticed the tightness as well because he laughed and said, "it is a little small, but it'll do in a pinch."