Tarri Ch. 03

Tarri opened her eyes. The bare branches of the trees were stark against the sky. Behind her, the forest trail stretched off into blackness. To one end, it led back to town, and to the other, it led eventually to a running stream.

For a moment, she was calm. Her sex with Rachel and masturbation in the forest had quenched her desire, if only for a little while.

Tarri felt compelled to explore the forest. Rachel did not cross her mind. After all, as Tarri's slave, Rachel would be there when Tarri needed her, and when Tarri didn't, Rachel would simply wait for her to need her again.

As Tarri walked through the rain, she found her clothes to be uncomfortable: cold, damp, and slick against her skin. Without hesitation, she took off her t-shirt, then her shorts, and piled them by a tree. Then she knelt and untied her shoes with fumbling fingers, careful not to sit down in the brush; the idea of putting her bare ass and pussy on sharp pine needles made her wince. Naked in the woods, she felt good again, as she had at the beach. She would not put her clothes back on again.

She padded along the trail, her hands swinging by her sides. The moon was high in the sky, a silver crescent beside swirls of stars. Her bare feet were pricked by needles and sometimes rocks. The path curved deeper and deeper into the woods, and as she walked into the darkness, she began to hear the distant wash of the stream.

Finally she reached the water. The trail led up to the riverbank, and then kept going, curving back around in a circle that eventually led to the town. Usually, that was what Tarri would do: spend a few minutes standing by the water, and then turn back around. But not today. She stood on the riverbank, her toes sinking into the mud, and peered up the stream, where it left the trail and went into the forest. Where did the stream lead? How far did it go?

Without hesitation, she stepped into the water and began to walk against the current, off the trail, into the woods.

Further and further she went, and the further she went, the deeper the stream got. On both sides of the stream were dead trees, sinister in the night, and heavy underbrush covered with leaves and twigs and bugs.

Up ahead, the trees by the side of the stream had been cleared away, and there a dark shape lay. Tarri waded through the water, and when she finally reached the clearing, she stepped up out of the water. She knelt down to examine this shape.

In the clearing lay a dead deer. The deer was utterly still, surrounded by stray tufts of pale fur. Though the remains of a skeleton gave a curvy structure to its upper body, its legs and hindquarters had rotted almost totally. Its ribs were visible through its torn belly, and its face held the silent rictus of a dying scream. Fear rose in Tarri's gut.

Suddenly she wanted to return to her room, take a hot shower, and forget about everything that had happened. She could return to the world. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

But when she opened her eyes, she realized the deer was moving. Though its legs were folded and broken beneath it, it was somehow propping itself up so as to stand on its two hind legs. Though its corpse was still desiccated, the thing was moving like some kind of puppet, both alive and not. In shock and terror, Tarri backed up out of the clearing, into the river, as this dead animal teetered back and forth on its hooves. Then it looked at her - its eyes were beady and black - and tossed its head, as though it were indicating a direction, and began to walk that way. Tarri decided she would follow this grisly impossibility.

The deer walked awkwardly through the forest, its rotted tail dragging along the leaves, and Tarri followed. The pleasant smell of pine came to her, its fresh and somehow bright aroma, mixed with a slightly rotted stench from the walking corpse. They walked for a long time, until she saw another clearing in the distance, and another shape. Someone was standing there, silhouetted; it was too dark to see.

When the deer reached the edge of the new clearing, it turned creakily around and held up one hoof, as if to stop her. Tarri got the message, stood by the edge, and waited. The deer shuffled up to the dark silhouette, and this person reached out and patted it on the head. Then they bent down to the ground, rummaged around for a moment, and an open flame appeared in the air above. Like a hanging torch, this ball of fire suspended from a tree sent whitish-red light across the clearing; it was so bright that Tarri had to shut her eyes for a moment and look at the circular blur it had left on her vision. At the moment she opened her eyes, someone said, "Well, come here, then."

In the circle stood a young man, dressed all in white. Like Tarri, he was blond, and his hair reached down to his shoulders. On his face was a somewhat bored expression, but apart from that, his face was beautiful; he was clean-shaven, and had pointed, elfin features. His only flaw was a deep scar across his cheek. Beside him stood the dead deer, its face now aimed at the ground. And beside them both was an altar, a flat surface made from black metal that reflected the light so powerfully it hurt to look at.

"Come here," said the young man again, and totally confused, Tarri walked forward into the clearing. She was more aware than ever of her nakedness, but though the young man looked her up and down, she made no attempt to cover herself.

The deer lurched down onto all fours, like a normal deer, but the young man said, "Bexes, come on. Stand back up." And Bexes did.

"Am I dead?" asked Tarri finally.

"No," said the young man, sliding his hands into his pockets and leaning against the altar. "This is all really happening."

"Who are you?"

"I'm John Woland," he said. "Who are you?"

"Tarri," she replied.

He stepped up onto the black altar, and a gust of wind through the forest ruffled his white suit. "I'm a dark magician," he murmured, "and by following the deer out here, you've now become my slave."

Tarri thought for a moment, and finally spoke. "No." She motioned to Bexes. "I could never associate my hot body with something so ugly."

"If your only reason for denying me is vanity, maybe you should rethink your values," said Woland drily. "Anyway, it's not up to you. Now lie down on the altar."

Black wisps of ash floated through the air between them, sent by the crackling flames, and Tarri realized that she wanted to submit to Woland.

So she lay down on the cold altar as Woland approached. Suddenly she realized that this was the inversion of her relationship with Rachel; as her own will had been given over totally to Woland, Rachel's had been given totally over to her.

Suddenly then the deer's face appeared in her vision, blocking out the stars in the night sky. Bexes was awful - there were great patches of dead skin along his snout, and broken-out teeth. She was worried for a moment that the thing was going to touch her; though she had submitted herself to Woland, she didn't want his pet carcass to pleasure itself with her body. But Bexes, a dead thing, seemed free from all desire.

Tarri raised her head slightly and then for a moment Woland appeared, having bounded up onto the altar at her feet. While she was lying down, he'd pulled off his white suit, and now stood naked in the moonlight. Woland was slender and handsome. His body seemed totally smooth, from his chest down his abs to his penis and balls, which swung slowly in the moonlight. He was gazing down at something beneath Tarri. For a second, Tarri thought it was her feet, then she realized that he was looking at his own reflection in the dark mirror of the altar. Tarri thought this was ridiculous, but as his slave, she couldn't do anything about it.

Woland looked up to her. His eyes had no pupils. He reminded her of the deer in that way. But she saw desire stirring within him - the muscles in his arms and shoulders began to clench, and his dick began to grow heavier. He reached down with one hand - he wore a black ring - and stroked himself, slowly, until he was fully erect. He posed above her for a moment, threw his head back, like he was imagining someone watching him.

"Bexes," he said, "grab me the knife."

The deer tottered over, and holding a rusty blade between its teeth, bowed and presented it to Woland. The young man tossed it in the air and caught it cleanly by its handle. Then he bounded back off the altar and walked around the side, so that he was posed above Tarri's naked body. Though she could see him looming above her, his face terribly blank and the knife suspended above, Tarri felt no fear. Maybe she knew he wasn't going to kill her, or maybe she simply wasn't afraid to die. Either way, he would do what he would.

He ran the knife gently along her right arm. Pain - but she stayed still.

"Good," he said. Then he reached out and ran his finger along the cut that he'd made, held her blood up to the light. He turned to Bexes. "Vial."

After a few moments, the deer brought a glass beaker clenched in its jaw. Woland ran the lip along her arm, collecting a bit of her blood, which ran dark and collected in a small pool at the bottom. "Lovely," he said. "You really are a sexy girl, you know. You have nice blood."

"Thank you, Woland," said Tarri.

His cock was still erect. Shadows played across his slim torso in the weird light. Woland got on his knees in front of her, between her legs, and calmly slid his cock into her, slowly at first, but very deep. There was a warm sensation up inside her, in a place she had never been touched before. His hands were pinned on her shoulders, his expressionless face staring down into hers.

He began to pound her pussy with slow, rough thrusts, so that his balls slapped against her pussy lips, and Tarri moaned. Her eyes began to cross as she approached orgasm, and perhaps sensing this, Woland slowed down. The deer stood at the edge of their vision, watching with corpse-like disinterest. Now she could feel every inch of his shaft as it slid past the opening to her cunt, deeper through her and up into a secret place. But he had begun to squeeze her back and moan, and Tarri knew what was coming. Even Woland could not resist a moan; he clutched her hard as he erupted into her pussy, biting her shoulder as he did. At the same time, Tarri was brought to her own shattering orgasm, and again briefly lost herself before returning to her body.

He withdrew himself, flaccid, and knelt above her. With one hand he reached down to her pussy and gently played with her, smearing his cum around the lips, ensuring that she was totally marked. His seed trickled down her thigh, spilled onto the altar. And when Tarri looked up at him she realized that his cum was jet black, like oil.

Woland extended his hand, lifted her up onto her feet. "Go back home," he said. "Bexes will lead you back. You won't be able to get back to the river without him - otherwise you'll just wander around in the forest until you starve. But you'll come back when I tell you to come back, do you understand?"

"Yes," said Tarri. She would do whatever he said. If he wanted to fuck her, she would let him fuck her. If he wanted to kill her, she would let him kill her. He was her master.

"Go," said Woland.

Tarri followed the deer out to the gate which had led her into the clearing. The black altar receded in her wake, and the hanging light cast a long shadow in front of her as she walked naked towards the river. Leaves and moss were wrapped around her toes, and her pussy ached with satisfied pleasure. As she walked through the trees in the rising dawn, she wanted somehow to be affectionate with Woland, to make him feel better. But she knew that couldn't happen; he was busy with other matters. She imagined him standing alone in the bizarre light of the Second Clearing, considering the implications of this new relationship he had formed with Tarri.

Though she was still repulsed by Bexes, she understood that it was Woland's pet - indeed, that it was somehow essentially connected to Woland. And so she tolerated the pet, although she would not touch it. As they walked through the brightening woods, the sound of running water began to rise before her, and soon she recognized the First Clearing. When they reached it, Bexes lay back down, and after briefly fixing its eyes on her, it settled back down into death, or sleep, to wait.

Tarri stepped back into the running water and walked back to the trail. Then she walked nude through the forest, back towards town. She began to jog, so that her breasts bounced with each step, suffering occasional jolts of pain when her bare feet landed on rocks and sharp twigs.

Her shorts and shirt were dry now. She shook them off, slipped them back on her body. Then she left the trail and returned to town in a daze, and when she got back to her room, she didn't even have time to shower Woland's scent off her - she just fell on her bed and drifted into a deep sleep.