Marun and the Monster

"You will feel strange for a few moments," she warned, "You may have difficulty breathing, as if a great weight has been placed on you. Just focus on breathing. I honestly pray that you realize what you are asking of me, and I hope that... I pray that, a hundred, or two hundred... or five hundred years from now, you won't hate me for what I'm about to do."

"Just never change who you are," Marun replied with a smile, "Because who you are is who I wish to be with."

Resmine returned his smile for a few seconds before growing solemn once more. She drew in a deep breath, as did Serpent and Lion, and she placed her hands on Marun's head and chest, careful not to add any more cuts to him. She began to chant, and then Serpent joined in, followed by Lion. They chanted in unison with voices that grew suddenly faint... no, Marun realized, it was his ears that suddenly felt as if wool had been shoved in them. Resmine spoke at the same volume, if not louder. He focused all his attention on his breathing, inhale, exhale, realizing now that each inhale took more strength, like rocks were being piled upon him one at a time.

He began to breathe shallowly, growing pale as he felt more and more compressed. Resmine continued chanting because to stop now would surely kill him, but she fervently wished she had refused to begin it in the first place. He was a mortal, and, like mortals, had such a fragile constitution. He might not survive the incantation, and she would be responsible for his death!

Lion began increasing his volume, casting a glare at Woman as he did so, as an obvious warning when she faltered a bit, and she gathered her resolve, driving herself to finish what she started. The incantation lasted another three minutes, in which Marun was beginning to appear a bit bluish as he was starving for oxygen. Resmine forced herself to keep going, praying fervently that he would survive it.

Finally, they reached the end of the incantation, "Mu'rah egohr Tsu rwai'su Froam!"

They panted, the exertion taking its toll on them, and then Woman gazed down upon her lover in terror. He appeared to be so close to death that his heart beat weakly within his chest and his eyes were rolled back so that only the whites, pink now with broken vessels, showed. He took in a faint gasp of breath, and then another.

"Oh gods, what have I done?" Woman cried, tears filling her eyes.

"You have done what he asked of you," Lion answered uncertainly.

Serpent hissed, "He is not dead yet. I can smell life clinging to him, and it is stubborn."

Resmine lifted her hands from him and knelt, weeping over him while he hovered somewhere between life and death. Then, in a great spasm, he gasped in a whooping expanse of air, his back arching right off the bed before he collapsed back onto it.

"See?" Serpent said proudly, "Behold, he is already returning from the brink. His heart is already beating strongly in his chest."

Marun slowly regained consciousness, and he looked up to see Resmine gaping wide-eyed at him.

"How many days have I been unconscious?" he croaked, his mouth dry.

"Days?" Woman repeated, "You have not been... the incantation only lasted four or five minutes!"

"Really?" Marun mumbled, "But... the places I have been, it seemed at least five days. I have... not my body... but my... spirit... I have seen so many things, spoken to many... spirits, gods, goddesses. I spoke at length to the goddess Mur'ah."

"You spoke to Mur'ah? Of what?"

"We spoke of you. Mur'ah is opposed to what her brother, Verulle has done to you, and would have made him recant his curse if he were less powerful than she. She accepted your incantation and sends her blessings."

"You were only unconscious for minutes," Woman reminded him.

"The realm in which gods and spirits exist must keep to a different flow of time," Lion offered.

"Which means that Marun's spirit traveled in that realm while we performed the incantation," Serpent surmised.

"I also spoke to my mother and father," Marun revealed, "They are happy and together. All of the slain of my village reside within that realm. There is no more need for vengeance."

"Behold his chest," Lion called their attention to his now unmarked chest, "The incantation has worked."

"Yes, but it appears your earlier incantation has worn off early," Serpent remarked, and they all looked at Marun's manhood, now a more proportionate size.

Resmine, overjoyed to see that Marun was alive, did not care about the wearing-off of the other incantation. She bent down and took his normal-sized penis into her mouth and happily swirled her tongue all over it.

"Oh!" Marun gasped, stroking her long, wavy brown hair, "You are truly amazing!"

Then she let go of his now erect manhood, "Sit astride my chest, please, I beg. I wish to please you greatly right this moment!"

"As you wish," Marun got up and did as she bade, and she resumed sucking on him.

"Oh?" Lion glanced at Serpent, "Really? Mistress demands it."

Lion extended his head down just beneath Woman's head and began purring, his mouth nuzzled against Marun's testicles, causing Marun to tremble in surprise. Then, even more shocking, Serpent extended his own head until his snout was just inches from Marun's buttocks. He snaked his tongue out and penetrated Marun's anus, burrowing it up fully inside him. Marun gasped and began humping forward against Woman's mouth, and, within thirty seconds, he cried out and his seed spurted into her hungry mouth. She swallowed everything he had to give before releasing his erection. Lion and Serpent withdrew as well, having done as Woman commanded.

"I am unsure how to feel about that," Serpent muttered.

Lion replied, "We are but extensions of Resmine."

Because Marun insisted upon it, Resmine performed the first incantation once more so that Marun could make love to her, which he proceeded to do with renewed vigor, bringing her to climax over and over until she was near exhaustion before he allowed himself to release his seed deep within her. A drop or two of the red liquid in the vial helped them rejuvenate, and she knelt over his manhood and eased it inside her. She impaled herself upon him excitedly, sometimes cutting him accidentally with a wayward talon, but, though he winced at the pain, his flesh reknitted itself almost instantly, and she continued riding him eagerly. Soon, she lost count of how many times she reached and re-reached that plateau of ecstasy, and she was thrumming with almost unbearable pleasure before he cried out, thrusting himself upward and filling her once again with his seed.

After she lay down next to him, they both agreed that they would rest for a while and recuperate the normal way rather than indulge in the contents of the vial. She had to admit that she rather enjoyed the post-coital act of resting next to her lover, the sheen of perspiration drying on her skin while his seed and her honey leaked from her satisfied womanhood. The incantation she had placed upon him to increase the size of his manhood was already wearing off; apparently it was the incantation from earlier causing other incantations to wear off more quickly. He was beginning to doze, feeling happy and at peace for the first time since he'd returned from a neighboring village to find his own in ruins.

"So!" a familiar voice uttered loudly nearby, jolting both Marun and Resmine awake, "It seems our abomination has taken a lover, as impossible as that sounds!"

Resmine was on her feet only about half a second before Marun, but she made it about three steps before coming to a complete halt, frozen mid-snarl. Marun just reached his sword and grasped the handle before the same incantation placed upon her also reached him, and he could not move a single finger.

"Tell me, hideous monster, what kind of enchantment could you possibly have placed upon this simpleton to convince him that you were worth bedding?" the intruder swept further into the chamber, and Marun could now see him. It was the "merchant" on the edge of his village that had sent him here.

"I see you have failed spectacularly in your quest for vengeance," Une smirked as he swaggered pretentiously to within five feet of Resmine, "Not that this foul nightmare monster could have done what I accused it of. After all, even it must adhere to the Blood Pact. No, indeed it was a pack of roaming savages and a clever suggestion given to them by myself that those of your village were the guardians of a vast treasure."

Marun wanted to plunge his sword into the charlatan priest's throat, but he still could not... wait... he could move a little... He managed to remain completely still, however, as he realized that the priest's incantation was wearing off quickly, just as Resmine's had.

"You see, all I needed was a warrior like yourself who could make it through the three trials to reach this chamber and slay that beast as it deserves, but I never counted on you being seduced by it instead. Well, my god Verulle will be most pleased when I return to the temple with the news of your death, creature, your heads to adorn his temple walls as a reminder to all of what happens when a stupid girl refuses a great God."

Apparently confident of the potency of his incantation, he approached Marun first, "Such a simple task, one would think a heart so filled with rage would follow through, but I guess you were not as hell-bent on vengeance as you thought. I'll let you watch me slay the beast that has seduced you before I cut out your eyes and spill your entrails-"

Marun, fully in control of his body now, his hands still upon the handle of his sword, deftly swept his sword up, creating a deep slice in the priest's face, puncturing his other eye. The priest screamed, now completely blind, his hands cupping his face in shock and agony. Distracted by this sudden pain, his incantation wore off quickly, and Resmine found herself able to move once more. Marun struck the priest in the face, knocking him down, and prepared himself to take his head from his shoulders.

"Wait," Lion bade.

Marun halted, looking at Lion in disbelief, "His lies caused the slaughter of my village!"

Serpent replied, "Remember our earlier bargain? He delivered himself here, but you still have honored it. Please allow us to dispose of him as we see fit."

Marun hesitated, and then lowered his sword, "Do you hear that, detestable priest of a detestable god? Resmine herself has decided your fate. Your lies and scheming will not save you."

"Stay away from me, evil creature!" Une tried to stand, flailing his arms around to ward off an attack, "I have the full blessing of Verulle, who will destroy you himself if you even try to touch me!"

Resmine approached the flailing priest, "You are a pathetic mockery of a human, just as the god whom you serve is a pathetic mockery of a god. He cannot save you, nor would he wish to."

Marun turned away from the priest as both Serpent and Lion struck, silencing the priest. He waited until the sound of chewing and snapping bones ended, and then he turned to find no sign of the priest save his robes, bloody and torn into strips. Resmine, now covered in blood, waded into the spring to rinse away the blood, and she did not speak until she was finished.

Then she came to Marun and embraced him in relief, "I feared I might die by his hand instead of him by mine! How did you break his incantation when I was fully bound by it?"

"As you incantation on my manhood wore off quickly, so too did the priest's, due to the gift you have given me," Marun returned the embrace, "And now we are forever rid of him."

Then Resmine suddenly pushed him away, and he fell backward in surprise. He got up and now regarded Resmine doubled over in pain, falling to her knees. Seconds later Marun was struck with a horrendous pain and was too on his knees.

"I have come," boomed a loud voice, "To destroy the one who has felled my priest!"

The air crackled as a being shimmered into view, a man with a thick mane of hair and a physical stature befitting an Arynthian, a legendary people renowned for nearly impossible feats of strength.

"Retreat," commanded the being to Resmine, "For you know you cannot best me in a battle of wills."

Resmine did not retreat, but neither did she advance as she was still doubled over in agony.

"Leave her be!" Marun shouted through his own pain, "Verulle... petty god with a grand ego!"

Verulle regarded the man on his knees clutching his stomach, "Such courage have you... I know you, orphan, or do you think that Une, loyal that he may be to me, could have hatched such a scheme on his own?"

"Then you are as foul as your priest!" Marun cried out, "As foul as you are petty, a weak excuse for a god!"

Verulle chuckled darkly, "For a man who faces his own death, you are nevertheless amusing."

Resmine managed, somehow, to gain her feet, "Spare him, Verulle!"

"Spare your lover, whom you have given a gift that you once denied me? No, I think not, Resmine. I think I shall butcher him before your eyes and force you to consume him as you did my priest, as your punishment for daring to defy me time after time."

"Mu'rah Esoh Thyre, Freoh Unsak en Heam Towr!" Marun spoke in a voice much louder than he could believe would issue from his throat, "Uran esoh Thyre, Freoh Unsak en Heam Towr!"

A blinding light erupted from the center of the chamber, and Marun found himself upon his back near the spring. He struggled to his feet, gradually becoming aware that the agonizing pain had faded. A woman in golden robes and long, ebony hair stood in the center of the chamber, and a man in similar robes and almost translucent white skin stood next to her.

"Mu'rah and Uran," Verulle sneered, "I see this pitiful orphan has somehow gained your favor for you to visit so soon."

"Verulle," Mur'ah sighed, "I spoke to him myself in our realm so he would know to summon us should you threaten him or his love."

"In our realm?" Verulle finally appeared uncertain, "How would a mere mortal gain entrance to our realm?"

"He has been blessed with the gift of long life by the victim of your shattered ego. So pathetic were you that you threw a fit like a mortal infant, cursing one of the only mortal women that saw you for who you really are."

"And so you have brought our older brother, Uran, to confront me as you could not confront me alone," Verulle scowled.

"Verulle, this mortal man's words are all too true," Uran spoke in a deep, rich voice, "Your petulant exploits have caused such turmoil that mortals all over this world have turned away from us in response. Even Pir'ohn himself is wrought with anger, and only his unconditional love of all his children has stayed him from shattering you into nothingness. Still, he has granted us permission to retrieve you and deliver you to his feet so that he may decide what to do with you."

Now showing fear, Verulle crossed his arms over his chest, "And if I refuse to allow myself to be delivered?"

"I do believe," Uran chuckled, "That, between Mur'ah and myself, we will deliver you as he bade us, though you may not be in one piece by the time you kneel at his feet."

Without another word, Mur'ah summoned a length of golden chain, which she whipped and threw at Verulle, and it wrapped around his struggling form, both ends suddenly linked tightly together, binding him.

"I have wished to do that for centuries," Mur'ah admitted with a satisfied smile before turning to Marun, who had gone to Resmine's side, "Young Marun, you have kept your word and now Verulle is without his power. Resmine, at Marun's bidding, I, with the assistance of Uran, my brother, will be able to undo the curse placed upon you. However, the matter of your near-immortality is beyond even our collective powers."

Resmine knelt upon the floor, "Goddess Mur'ah, God Uran, blessed be your mercy and generosity, if you would lift from me my cursed form, I would be forever grateful and sing your praises all my long life."

"We would happily lift the curse our foul brother Verulle placed upon you," Mur'ah knelt before Resmine, lifting her chin to behold her, "Marun is correct, I see, even Verulle's curse could not take your inner beauty. I must beg your forgiveness, for even I could not protect you from Verulle when he first laid eyes upon you. I only have one request: Due to Verulle's misdeeds, many who once worshipped us no longer do so. Therefore, I ask that you tell your tale to as many as would hear it, not only of your curse, but of your newfound love and your transformation back into the beautiful woman they shall see before them."

Resmine swore, "I will tell any who will listen of your grace and generosity, but how can I be assured that I will be believed?"

Uran stepped forward and also, incredibly, knelt as his sister had, "Fair Resmine, as part of our bargain, you only need call upon Mur'ah, and she will show any who behold you your present form for three beats of your heart, so that they may see the truth."

"Then I will do so for the rest of my days," Resmine declared.

"Behold!" Uran and Mur'ah spoke in unison, "Behold your true form, Resmine!"

Marun gaped in awe as Resmine shrank, the heads of Serpent and Lion fading like a mist, and Resmine was as she had been a century before, and as stunning as ever, though, in his eye, despite her curse, she had never been less than stunning. Resmine gazed at her hands, slender and lovely, with no flesh-ripping talons upon their fingertips.

Mur'ah chuckled, "Marun is a curious specimen of a mortal, is he not, Uran?"

"How so, dear sister?" Uran glanced at her.

"You must only see into his mind to know it. When he spoke of Resmine, yes, he spoke of her cursed form, and yet, what he spoke of most is how beautiful she is. I saw this for myself when I looked upon her, but this is a given, as I am a goddess. But that he, a mortal man, could also see it... most curious."

Uran nodded, "Yes, most curious. Then, so is his continued survival of an incantation that would surely have killed a lesser man. Perhaps his strength and his perception spring from the same source. Could their meeting have been guided by Father's hand?"

Mur'ah considered this, "It does seem to have his touch to it. If so, I shall praise him for his clever idea."

They stood, God and Goddess, "Remember your oath, Resmine. And we thank you, Marun, for summoning us as you promised. Now we must take our leave. We have a disobedient brother to deliver to our Father."

Verulle was dragged by the chains that bound him, fearful now for his life, and the three shimmered and vanished.

Resmine, stunned, turned to Marun, "I... I'm... after all this time..."

"Yes," Marun nodded, "Still as beautiful as ever, dear Resmine."

She embraced him ecstatically, and then touched his face, his chest, "My hands no longer destroy what they touch..."

Marun took her hands in his own, "I strangely find myself missing Serpent and Lion."

She laughed dryly, "You have not had to suffer them as long as I have. Besides, when you suggested before that they were sides of me personified, I believe you were correct, as I can still feel them in my head."

She looked around the chamber, her home for so long, and wondered, "I no longer need to hide myself from the outside world, do I?"

"Yet," Marun suggested, "We could remain here for a little while longer, if you prefer. Perhaps we might join together and let the outside world wait our arrival?"

She embraced him once more, now of a normal size, no longer towering over him, "Yes, the world can wait, but not for too long. I promised Mur'ah and Uran, after all."

"Yes, you did, and we will, but let us not forget that we both have quite a long life ahead of us in which we may do so. For now, I only wish to keep you to myself a while longer."