Moonlight Temple: The Coven

"All that matters is this" before Alexios could ask what she meant, Demetria pressed her lips against his own. She slid her tongue into his mouth, smoother than Aphrodisia ever did and even the taste was a divine feeling. Alexios was sure his body would betray him and he would explode there and then.

As she broke off the kiss the younger woman with white hair climbed beside him and pressed her lips into his own. It was not as smooth as Demetria but found himself moaning into her mouth. He could already feel someone nuzzling up to him and licking one of his nipples. Whoever it was used her tongue to trace circles around his nipples which felt more sensitive than he thought it would but also lapped and teased his chest and stomach.

The woman kissing him broke off the kiss. She was as flustered as he must have been. She was blushing like she had run a mile, her eyes were dilated and her breath was ragged from just a few minutes of kissing him. She wanted more.

Despite the attention of the women that he assumed were called Theodora and Luliana, Alexios found his attention drawn back to Demetria who had brushed a hand across his cock. Just the slight physical contact made him shudder.

Seeing his reaction, Demetria began running her tongue up and down his member. Unable to keep himself even half sitting up, Alexios collapsed onto the bed moaning with pleasure. The two other women took note of his reaction and began licking and nuzzling his neck, nipples, and abdomen.

The stimulation was almost too much, he was receiving so much stimulation he didn't even know how to react. With a short yelp, he ejaculated a huge glob of cum all over the women. He lay back exhausted and heaving, somewhat embarrassed that he had been brought to orgasm so quickly.

Wiping a drop of sperm from her face, Demetria rose and once again came level to his face. "You have great and unused potential" She moaned. "Let me show it to you" she once again placed two fingers on his head. Almost instantly he felt the fatigue that had come with his sudden climax dissipate like it was never there. In its place was an intense feeling of strength and arousal.

He felt like he could run a hundred miles if he wasn't so consumed by lust. Demetria must have known this as she began planting kisses on his face and lips. Alexios grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her to the bed, an uncharacteristically forceful act he would not have performed had he been in his right frame of mind.

He practically threw himself onto her pawing at and ravaging her firm and round breasts and filling his nostrils with her intoxicating scent. Without asking or alerting his current partner Alexios thrust himself into Demetria down to the stem, in response she arched her back and gasped wordlessly as he began to pump into her with an animalistic speed and desperation.

"Yes more!" She moaned as she grasped his ass cheeks, pulling them towards her in rhythm with each thrust as if to make sure he was as deep within her as possible.

This time she came first as she threw back her head and let out a deep and sharp gasp, her eyes almost rolling into the back of her head. Alexios could feel her tightening around him causing him to explode inside her moments after she did.

He withdrew leaving the fiery-haired ruler panting, sweating, and filled with his seed. Despite coming twice he had not even begun to quench his lust or his explosion of energy. Immediately, he grabbed the nearest woman and pulled her into a deep kiss. This would continue to fuck voraciously deep into the night and almost into sunrise.

****

Alexios woke up to sunlight creeping through the curtains of the room. He still remembered the previous night's unrestrained copulation but it all felt strangely unreal, like a vague dream. He was also surprised that he did not feel any kind of exhaustion. Given how much he had exerted himself he was sure he would not be able to move the next morning but instead he felt relaxed and rested.

A door creaked open outside his peripheral vision and someone walked in. It was Demetria, still nude but not wearing a drop of her signature body paint. "You're awake," she said cupping one of his cheeks. "I let you sleep in, I thought you might need the rest" she began walking to the door leading out of the room. "I will see that you are properly fed and bathed" "Wait!" Alexios called out. "I have so many questions."

Demetria sighed and turned to face him "I suppose you do deserve to know why you are so important to us." She walked to a drawer and retrieved a small bowl of a dark liquid and sat on the bed by him. She extended her arms out like she was offering the bowl to an unseen individual.

"It was written many decades ago that Gaia would choose a male who would help her bring peace to the world" as she spoke Alexios noticed something fascinating, the liquid from the bowl began to rise. Like a waterfall slowly flowing upwards into the air it ascended and began to flow and encircle Demetria's body.

"You will impregnate me, and our union will give rise to a body that Gaia can inhabit. When she walks the physical world she will be able to bring peace and love to all the world." The paint began to descend on Demetria, slowly and carefully forming the patterns and symbols that she had worn the previous night. "We will strip away all traces of modernity and return to a happy, peaceful time. Where we will all bask under the light of mother Gaia" Alexios watched mesmerized as In mere moments she took on the same appearance and stature as when she had emerged from the green mist the previous night.

"But," she said with a sigh, "all such things must come with a cost." Breaking out of his trance of watching how she applied her body paint Alexios felt a tingle of worry. The way she had talked about cost told me that there was something that bothered her. "What cost?" He asked. There was silence for a few seconds and just as he was about to repeat himself Demetria turned and looked him in the eye.

"You will not survive the process, providing the life force for the child of Gaia will drain everything you have" Alexios felt his worry grow into a pinprick of fear. "I want no part of this then, release me and my partner" Demetria ignored him and rose from the bed heading to the door. This is your fate Alexios, do not resist it. I promise you that your last days will be as pleasurable as we can make them. You will want for nothing till the time comes."

She opened the door. "But for now I believe you should stay here" the door closed. Alexios rushed to his feet and tried to open the door, to no surprise it was locked. "Damn it!" he said out loud. He was trapped in the middle of nowhere by a cult that wanted to sacrifice him. Ignoring the impulse to curse his luck and rail against the gods he found his mind racing to build an escape plan.

Alexios sat in the hut for several hours, only left to his thoughts. He did entertain the idea of staying with Demetria and seeing her vision through but he soon dismissed it. It was just another sort of cage, one that would end in imminent death. He searched through the drawers and cupboards and found almost nothing he recognized. The hut contained nothing but strange glass vials and objects that he didn't know the purpose of.

After about three hours a naked woman entered with a tray of food, fruits, and some cooked pigeon. Alexios was surprised that they ate meat at all. He ate voraciously and went back to pacing and thinking. An hour after that two women came in with a wooden tub. They left it and came back with pails of hot water that they poured into the tub, soap was left as well. Alexios didn't recognize the women at any point in his stay but they looked at him with great interest.

Ignoring this, Alexios knew he had to focus on an escape but took some time to properly bathe and clean himself. As he dried himself a desperate idea came into his mind. As the sunset, the door once again opened and one of the women from the previous night entered with a tray of food. Alexios sat on the bed, watching her intently. "Leave the food there," he said, pointing at a table.

The woman wordlessly heeded his command and laid the food down. Alexios got up and stood behind the woman slowly kissing her on the back. She purred contently and did nothing to stop his advances. All was so far going according to plan, she was completely comfortable and unaware. Without warning, Alexios placed his hand around her mouth and nose and wrapped his arm around her waist and arms.

She tried to struggle and twist against his grip but Alexios maintained it firmly as her resistance slowly began to fade and she drifted into unconsciousness. When she was completely asleep, Alexios lifted her into the bed, covered her with the sheet, and slipped out the door.

For the first time, he got a good look at the wooden hut that had been his prison for the past day. It was much larger than he thought and it was clear he had been privy to only a single room. Having escaped his current captors he needed to find a way to get back his medallion and escape.

There were no guards present nearby but someone would undoubtedly come to check on him. Favoring caution, Alexios took to hiding in the bushes and behind the trees that framed the beaten path. After following the path for a half minute he came to a crossroads. He could see more small wooden houses and more denizens of the strange settlement, all of whom preferred body paint to any kind of clothing. Some looked to be little older than children but as expected not a single male was anywhere in sight.

Straining his ears he listened in on a nearby conversation, not much could be heard but he made out the words "Mistress Demetria" and "going to the main temple." With nothing to follow but a hunch and a prayer, Alexios began following one of the women as she broke away from the conversation with agonizing slowness so as not to snap a twig too loudly and draw the ears and eyes of his captor.

The woman he shadowed made her way down a seemingly empty path and towards the largest structure in the area. It was built like a barn but its entrance was covered in symbols and cave paintings like drawings of animals and figures all illustrated with paints of bright green, yellow and purple.

There were no guards and nobody within sight so Alexios took a gamble and left the safety and discomfort that the bushes provided and snuck to the entrance of the hut, a tall doorway with a red cloth covering its entrance, as the woman went in. Inside he could see Demetria kneeling at something he couldn't get a good view of. Words were exchanged and the two women began heading to the exit. Darting out of view, Alexios waited till Demetria and the other woman had left the hut and the immediate area before he emerged from the bushes.

"Hey over here!" someone whispered to his side. Alexios felt his heart jump into his mouth believing he had been caught for a split second. He spun his whole body in the direction of the voice to see Aphrodisia sitting naked in a wooden cage that rested to the right of the hut, out of sight and obscured by some bushes. He wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't drawn attention to herself.

"They just threw me in here after they were done with me! Get me out!" "Lower your voice you fool or we'll both get caught!" Alexios hissed. Getting close to the cage he found it padlocked. "Wait here," He said quietly "I think the key may be in there I'll go get it just stay here" Aphrodisia frowned "What else can I do?" Her comeback was ignored as Alexios crept into the hut.

There was thankfully nobody else inside. At the other end of the building from the entrance, Alexios could see what Demetria had been kneeling at. It was a huge gnarled tree that seemed to have faces and other strange symbols engraved into it. It looked discolored, possessing a strange black hue to it. Alexios had never seen a tree like it before if it could be classified as a tree.

There were several tables of candles on either side of the long room all perfectly illuminating what should have been a very dark place. At the base of the tree, an area that it looked like the witches came to kneel at, was a ring of keys and the Crescent moon medallion. Alexios could feel tears spring to his eyes as he grabbed his medallion and hugged it. He feared that his dreams would be lost forever.

As he regained his composure he knew he couldn't simply unlock the cage and leave, the coven would undoubtedly begin hunting him and the most likely knew the forest better than either of them did. For all, he knew they may have found out he had escaped the hut. A distraction was needed, something that would keep them all occupied while he and Aphrodisia made off. Another idea sprang into his mind, this one less desperate and improvisational than the last.

Dashing outside he quickly began to scoop up as many dried leaves from the floor as he could, if Aphrodisia could see what he was doing she must have been very confused. Alexios dashed back in and dumped the leaves around the base of the twisted black tree. He grabbed some of the candles from the tables, careful not to extinguish the flame.

Walking up to the tree he was confronted by the danger of what he was about to do. He was important to Demetria and her coven but if he were to destroy their temple they may revoke his status, or punish him in some unspeakable way. Demetria did have a way to manipulate a man's body somehow.

Alexios shook his head, he had to take the chance. He couldn't let doubt and fear cause him to stall anymore, if his journey was going to be riddled with danger he had to become a man of action. He dropped the candles on the pile, scooped up the key to the cage, slung the medallion around his neck, and began running to the exit.

As he left he stole a glance at the tree, the fire was already beginning to build. Outside he fumbled with the lock to the cage, his shaking hands making it difficult to insert the key. Soon the key was in, the lock was turned and it clattered to the floor. "We need to hurry before they realize we-" He was cut off by a strange feeling, it was as if the earth was rumbling beneath his feet. The rumbling went from subtle to so powerful that Alexios almost lost his balance in a few moments.

"What's happening!?" Aphrodisia cried out "I don't know but we have to go!" The two began to run west into the forest stumbling from the shifting rumbling earth beneath them. Behind them, they could hear voices, one of the Alexios was certain it was Demetria but for the first time since they had met, it was high pitched and panicked. Despite the ground they had covered, looking over his shoulder Alexios could see flames leaping and rising from the temple. Had the flames spread that fast?

The two were almost starting to slow down their run when they heard it. It was one of the most disturbing sounds Alexios had ever heard, it sounded deep and guttural, not a roar but a loud and long groan of pain. It was so loud it made the ground shake even more fiercely. The most haunting part was that Alexios didn't know where it was coming from, it felt like it came from the forest itself.

The two ran, bolstered by panic-fueled adrenaline. All Alexios could focus on was the path ahead, maneuvering over logs and beside trees ignoring branches and bushes that nicked at his exposed skin. Neither knew when they decided to stop running, perhaps exhaustion caught up with them or they noticed that the rumbling had ceased but both travelers eventually stopped to catch their breaths, exhausted and terrified from what they had witnessed.

"What the hell happened back there!?" Aphrodisia yelled in between ragged breaths. "I don't know," Alexios said heavily "I think I angered whatever it is they were worshiping back there." The two recovered in silence for a short while before Alexios spoke again "the sun is coming down, can you find a way back to camp?" Wiping her brow, Aphrodisia half-smiled. "Yeah, I think I can."

They walked in silence for a bit with the only sound being the crunching of leaves under their feet. "Thanks for getting me out of there by the way," Aphrodisia said, breaking the silence. "I couldn't just leave you there" "no you could have but you didn't" Alexios looked up slightly surprised, she was expressing genuine gratitude? "Don't worry about it" he said almost to himself.

He was still shaken from what he had heard as he ran from the coven's temple, that noise he had heard would inhabit his nightmares for years to come. But the most terrifying thing he experienced that day was something he couldn't fully confirm.

It could have been his panic playing tricks on his mind but as he and Aphrodisia had fled he could have sworn he could see the trees writing and twisting around him as if they were in pain. By the time they had stopped running the phenomena was gone but he couldn't help but wonder what he had seen.