Sapphic Fairy Tales 09: The Frog

The jungle heat pressed in around Tiana as she forced her way through yet another thick mass of vines with the edge of her machete. It has been three days since she had last seen a hint of a path or even an animal track and ten days since she had seen any evidence of another human being. She was well and truly lost. She had a vague sense of direction from the light of the sun which filtered through the green leaves, but apart from that she was utterly without bearings.

Seeing a fallen tree ahead of her, Tiana sat down to take a small breather and collect her thoughts. She wiped away the sweat which was beading on her brow and tried to take stock of her surroundings. The fallen tree had left a gap in the canopy and a single beam of sunlight filtered down through the jungle gloom to fall on where she sat, making her seem almost like an exhibit in a museum.

She wore simple travellers clothes which consisted of a set of sturdy woven skirts and leg-coverings as well as a wide-brimmed straw hat and leather satchel. Her dark skin glowed a little with perspiration from her morning's efforts fighting her way through the jungle and her thick curly back hair was frizzy with the humidity. Her frame was stocky but slim, her arms and legs toned from many long weeks spent hiking through this unfamiliar terrain and numerous cuts, scrapes and abrasions covered her limbs. She had the desire many times to hack and slash at the greenery around her, but her elders had warned ehr to be kind to any spirits of the forest that she encountered, or risk dooming her journey for sure.

But it seemed that her journey had already been cursed from the start and Tiana cursed the day that she had abandoned the path and tried to take a shortcut through the untamed jungle. She had been trying to make up for lost time, time that she had lost by spending too long gathering rare plants and herbs along her route. She had been sent on this journey to act as ambassador from her people to the folk that lived in the next valley, bringing gifts in an attempt to establish trade. But Tiana was also a dedicated herbalist. She had spent years learning, practising and experimenting with the numerous rare plants of her jungle homeland, trying to find new properties or uses for them.

But one thing that she clearly was not, was an effective navigator or explorer. She had thought that she would be able to cut through the jungle and follow the river which led through the valley within two days. That had been two weeks ago. She had given up and tried to backtrack on herself several times since then and had ended up getting more and more lost each time. She now had precisely no idea where in the world she was, or how to get back.

Luckily her experience with the plants of the region had allowed her to find plenty of edible food in her wanderings or she would have gone hungry, as the food she had brought with her for the journey had run out days ago. The only thing weighing her pack down was the gifts that she had been trusted with for the people of the next valley. Now they were little more than useless heavy baubles that weighed her down as she trudged fruitlessly through the thick jungle brush.

As she sat on the log in the small clearing, Tiana idly reached into her pack and pulled out one of the trinkets that she had been carrying with her. It was a large golden ball about the size of a small melon and fit snugly in her hand. Its exterior was carved with dots, lines and patterns which she had been told represented the stars in the sky and was supposed to provide a useful map to travellers. It had proven completely useless to Tiana either because she didn't have the wit to understand it, or because the canopy was so thick in this part of the jungle that she could never make out more than a couple of stars at a time. When she had started her journey Tiana had enjoyed looking at the bauble, tossing it up and catching it as it fell, enjoying the weight and heft of it in her hand.

Looking at the ball now though she was reminded that as pretty and well made as it was, it was utterly useless to her and was merely weighing her pack down unnecessarily. Although it probably wasn't solid gold, it was nevertheless extremely heavy and it had been banging irritatingly against her back all morning. In a moment of anger and with a grunt of frustration, Tiana hefted the metal ball away through the trees and its departure was accompanied by the squawking of some surprised bird.

She immediately regretted her rash action, remembering that that ball had taken some skilled craftsmen hundreds of hours of painstaking work to construct and she immediately made to follow in the direction she had hurled it. But rather than the sound of a distant thud or clatter as the ball landed, there came instead a definite but distant 'sploosh' followed by a strange echo, as if the ball had landed in a distant body of water. At this, Tiana's ears pricked up as she had run out of water three days ago and she had survived this far by drinking collected rainwater from leaves and flowers. If there was a source of freshwater nearby then she should find it and fill up her water gourd as well as retrieve the orb.

She began making her way carefully through the undergrowth, careful of where she placed her feet, and trying to peer through the leaves to find the pond or lake or river that her golden orb had fallen into. It was as she pulled aside a massive leaf the size of her torso that the scene before Tina was revealed.

She was standing at the edge of an enormous steep sided pit, at least as wide across as her whole town had been, the far side was further away than even the best hunter in her tribe could have thrown a javelin. The pit was deep too, perhaps as deep again as the tallest trees of the jungle, its stone sides covered with vines and small bushes clinging desperately to the rock. The bottom of the enormous cavern was filled with water, covered here and there by enormous green lily pads, wide enough for Tiana herself to have stretched out on with room to spare.

But the most incredible thing about the massive pit was that here and there along the sides of the stone wall were carved magnificent buildings with doorways, windows, pillars and staircases linking them. They had been cut directly into the grey rock which made up the sides and seemed to recess back far into the earth behind them. There seemed to be no sign of any people however and the empty doorways and windows were all dark and sometimes overgrown, as if abandoned centuries ago.

Tiana wondered if anyone else from her village had ever stumbled upon this magnificent hidden temple. She thought not or surely she would have heard about it before. Looking down over the edge, Tiana could see small ripples on the surface of the massive lake at the bottom of the pit. Clearly this was where her golden ball had fallen.

After a quick scout around the edge, Tiana quickly noticed a set of stone stairs which had been cut into the rock face and she began to carefully make her way towards them. The stairs ran in a long curve which ran almost a full quarter of its circumference and led directly down into the midst of the abandoned stone buildings. The climb down however was treacherous as the stairs had long since been overgrown by decades of root and vine activity so that Tiana often had to scrabble ungainly across them. She didn't know how deep the water below was, but she wasn't about to risk jumping or falling from this height just in case it wasn't enough to break her fall.

As she descended the temperature cooled, the steamy humidity of the jungle above delightfully lessened in the damp dark coolness of the pit. The air smelled of greenery and pond-weed and was also strangely silent, the endless calls of the birds and other beasts above muted by the rock walls all around. But at the same time, every little step and fumble that Tiana made was amplified by the echoing of the sound from the far walls. She wondered what this place must have been like when there were people living here.

It didn't take too long for Tiana to finally reach the bottom of the stairs and found herself next to a long stone jetty of sorts which extended out into the now calm dark waters of the lake. She walked to the water's edge and got onto her knees, trying to see through the murk and get an idea of how deep the lake might be. But all that she was greeted with was an image of her own reflection, sweaty and with her hair even frizzier than usual after her morning exertions. She desperately wanted to dip her whole body in the water, to wash off the several days of travel she had had since last near a body of water.

She looked around her, making sure that the abandoned stone-cut buildings all around were indeed empty, before taking her pack from her back and stripping off her musty traveller's clothes. It felt good to have the cool air of the pit on her skin and she dipped her toe into the water to test its temperature. It was cold of course, but not terribly so and the shock would do her body good. Taking a small runup along the jetty, Tiana trotted forwards and launched herself into the calm dark waters of the lake with a mighty splash. She didn't hear it underwater but the echo reverberated around the pit's edges like a clap of thunder.

The shock of the cold water covering her body made Tiana gasp a lungful of air as she broke the surface once more, but despite the chill, the water felt wonderfully refreshing after the warm humidity of the jungle above. Kicking her legs to stay afloat she was amazed that even here at the water's edge she couldn't feel the bottom. Just how deep was this pool? She took another deep breath and dipped her head below the surface once more and cast her eyes downwards into the depths, hoping that she might have been able to spy the golden orb that she had recklessly tossed in.

But there was nothing, just an inky black gloom which descended down below her, lit by motes of sunlight which filtered through the lily pads on the surface. If the golden ball was down there, then she would be searching for it for a very long time indeed. Tiana was about to return to the surface when she caught movement under the water out of the corner of her eye. She snapped her head towards the motion instinctively, her heart suddenly spiking with fear. Could there be dangerous fish or perhaps snakes or other reptiles lurking in the deep dark waters?

Tiana quickly surfaced and kicked off back towards the stone jetty that she had jumped off, but as she did, she saw the movement again, this time above the surface and she spun round to catch it just disappearing under the water. Despite the potential danger Tiana found her curiosity overriding her self preservation and she dipped her head back below the water to try and catch a glimpse of the thing, perhaps it was one of the fabled forest spirits?

What she saw nearly made her lose all the air from her lungs as she fought back a gasp of awe and surprise. Swimming lazily and gracefully through the dark sun-dappled waters was a woman. No, not quite a woman, the creature had a similar form to a human, two arms, two legs, a head and similar proportions, but there were differences. The legs were muscular and sleek, with long webbed toes at the ends that pushed them through the water with powerful thrusts. The fingers too were webbed and the woman's skin was a deep dappled green, spotted all over with darker shades of emerald. She wore no clothes at all and Tiana could see the entirety of her flat nippleless chest and round muscular buttocks as she drifted lazily in a wide circle around her.

The woman's head was completely hairless, but a pair of strange almost scaly ridges ran back from above the eyes all the way back to the top of the neck. Her eyes themselves were huge and yellow in colour with narrow horizontal slits for pupils. She had no nose that Tiana could see, merely two small slits above the mouth, which was wide and seemed to be grinning up at Tiana through the murky water. Tiana started transfixed at the way the strange woman-ish creature moved through the water, half human and half fish-like, and as she watched they dove down into the murky depths and disappeared from view.

Realising that she was in desperate need of air, Tiana returned to the surface for just a moment, gasping a huge lungful before plunging back down to catch another look at the fascinating woman. Once again her breath was nearly taken away as she suddenly came face to face with the creature who had moved silently through the water until she was a mere arm's length from Tiana floating near the surface. Her big yellow eyes looked up at the floating woman with a puzzled curiosity, apparently examining Tiana from tip to toe as well.

As the two of them hung suspended in the water, the strange green skinned woman reached behind her slowly and Tiana for a moment thought that she was reaching for a weapon. But then her webbed hand returned and she saw that in it was resting the small glimmering shape of her golden orb, which she offered up to her like an offering to a god. Tiana smiled gratefully even under the water and she felt a few bubbles escape as she did, but reached out her hand in return to take the bauble. As she took it, their fingers touched lightly and Tiana was surprised by how delicately soft the creature's skin was, like the soft skin of a ripe fruit.

Once more needing air, she returned to the surface and was surprised to see the green-skinned woman also rise with her, before she too poked her head from the water and gave a strange toothy grin at her as they swam side by side. Clearly the girl was capable of breathing in both water and air. Tiana blinked the water out of her eyes and tried to pull her hair behind her so that she could see properly. The other woman merely swam with her head just above the water and blinked two pairs of pupils at her in a curious way.

'Errrrr... Hello.'

Tiana managed eventually as she raised her hand above the surface to give a little wave. The other woman smiled again and also waved a webbed hand in return in a comfortingly familiar gesture.

'I'm Tiana,' she continued, unsure of what else to say, 'I... I hope it's okay for me to be swimming in your pool, and thanks for getting me the ball back. Erm, do you have a name?'

'Kripet.'

She wasn't sure if this was the girl's name or just a noise that she, or perhaps her species made, Taina mused as she gently tossed the golden ball into the pile of clothes that she had left on the bank. For some reason she felt no shame in being naked in front of Kripet, perhaps it was the woman's strangeness or her own nakedness which put Tiana at ease, but she felt no urge to scrabble back into her clothes. As the two of them trod water a few feet apart, Kripet began moving in wide sweeping circles, her head just bobbing across the surface of the water as she did so almost like a dance. Tiana found herself hypnotised by the woman's big wide yellow eyes, which never left her own even for a moment

As unfamiliar as the woman's physique was, Tiana still found herself able to recognise the very human expressions which passed over her face as she looked at her. Curiosity battled for prominence over fear and something else, was it... longing?

'Do you live alone here, Kripet?'

Tiana asked as she also began to swim through the water, matching the other woman's long circular motions. For a moment Kripet didn't answer but merely looked sad and blinked her double eyelids a few times before simply nodding in reply.

'Where are the rest of your tribe? What happened to them?'

Once again Kripet didn't answer with words but merely raised a hand and pointed downwards with her webbed fingers. Tiana understood, or thought she did. If Kripet really was the last of her kind to live in this secluded hidden lake then it was no wonder Tiana had never seen a creature like her before. She must be so lonely.

As the two of them continued their watery dance, they slowly but surely began to move towards one-another, drawn by curiosity, or perhaps something else. The circles and curves they described through the waters became smaller and smaller until they were swimming nearly next to each other, face to face in a strange symmetrical dance. Tiana stared deep into the yellow and black eyes of this mysterious other-worldly woman, noticing the beautiful colouration and patterns on her green skin. At the same time Kripet's eyes seemed to be fascinated with Tiana's hair which hung in wet black ribbons from her head like a static waterfall.

A flick of a tongue passed over Kripet's lips as if she were contemplating a difficult choice. She looked away for a moment, back down into the depths of the water below. Then she looked back up at Tiana's eyes, as they swam face-to face now mere inches apart. There seemed to be some sort of nervous energy between the two of them, an unfamiliar understanding that seemed to transcend species. The water seemed to pull the two of them closer together, like a whirlpool draws all debris to the centre. Tiana's lips softly parted as she stared into Kripet's hypnotic yellow eyes and as they drew together she closed her eyes as their lips finally touched.

Tiana's mind was over-run with a slew of thoughts and emotions all of which were trying to drown each other out so that all she could comprehend was a numbing static roar in her head. Thoughts didn't seem to matter and sensation over-rode everything else as she felt how delicately soft Kripet's lips were on hers, not cold and clammy like she might have expected but merely cool and moist. She reached up with her hands and gently placed them on Kripet's hips while at the same time she felt Kripet's arms reach around her body and cradle her. The feeling of Kripet's body pressing into her own under the water was soft and smooth, and she could feel the powerful strokes of her legs keeping them both suspended in the water as they kissed.

Their lips parted and Tiana felt Kripet's tongue slip between them. Her tongue was longer and stronger than any Tiana had felt before and she felt a part of herself shiver with excitement as Kripet's tongue buried itself inside her mouth. Despite the strangeness of the situation and the woman she now found herself entwined with, Tiana found herself enjoying it. The coolness of the water and the soft firmness of Kripet's skin against her own were titillating and she found herself unwilling to break away from the fantastic kiss that this strange other-worldly woman was giving her.

There were so many questions begging for attention inside her mind. Who was Kripet? What kind of creature was she? Had her people carved the stone buildings all around the pit? Why had she kissed her? But the feeling of Kripet's tongue between her lips and the soft tender touch of her palms on her back and the feeling of their chests pressing together made all these questions seem irrelevant, unnecessary. Instead she simply allowed herself to go with the flow and felt her heart-rate increase and her skin warm as the kiss continued.

Very slowly Tiana felt the two of them beginning to sink, the water rising up her chest and over her shoulders and neck until it reached her chin. At that point, she pulled away from the kiss but allowed herself to remain supported by Kripet's strong arms and legs in the water.

'No. I'm sorry I can't go down underwater with you. I need air to breathe. I... I want this, but... we have to stay up here.'

For a moment Kripet looked perplexed and slightly disappointed, but then smiled playfully and took Tiana's hand to begin leading her around the edge of the water. A short distance away, a set of steps had been carved into the stone so that someone could descend down into the depths of the pool from the harbour above. Tiana allowed herself to be manoeuvred so that she sat on the steps and reclined back with her upper torso still out of the water. The cold air on her breasts made her nipples instantly harden and she heard Kripet giggle slightly at the sight of them, her webbed hands reached out gingerly as if wanting to touch, but her eyes flitted up to meet Tiana's as if asking for permission. In response Tiana simply smiled and reached out to grasp Kripet's paused hand, bringing it in to grasp fully on her wet rounded breast.