The Druid and the Igniad Ch. 01

The mountain beneath them rumbled as ripples of magical energy were both pulled from and given back to Gaia, with Lu's body as a conduit of that power. Gern felt it as she did, and in the immediate aftermath of their climax, understanding dawned upon him along with the blissful afterglow of their sharing. He had felt Gaia's essence of fire. He knew its magic.

Fire was unbridled feeling, obstinate in its existence. It either extinguished itself or was extinguished. It was impulsive and intense. It could smolder long, or suddenly burst. It was the energy of the entire universe, the echo of the essence of creation itself. A small fire in a hearth or the passion of love did for one what the sun did for the whole world: it provided light in the dark and warmth in the cold.

Lu and Gern caught their breath. Gern felt tingles in his whole body as he came down from the soaring heights of his peak. Lu stared at the night sky above, the smear of semi-molten rock beneath her, cooling. After a few moments, they found each other's eyes, and lovingly caressed one another.

Gern began to sweat again. His semi-hard erection was still buried in Lu, though much of the pleasure of it was numbed from his over-stimulated condition. It was not painfully hot, but he began to feel the heat uncomfortably. Much of his strength was sapped.

"So...hot...." Gern said breathlessly.

"Gern?" Lu asked softly. "Are you alright?"

"Something is...wrong." He slipped out of her and crouched on the stone, almost falling backwards. He wiped some sweat out of his eyes. "I feel...weak."

"You spent so much of your power. I felt you." She extracted herself from her molded seat, some of Gern's seed oozing from her slit. She looked down at it and felt it with her fingers, wondering why it did not sizzle or evaporate at her touch.

"It's too hot," Gern managed to say, leaning deliriously against the wall of the crater.

Concern for Gern overcoming that for herself, she came to his side and pulled his arm over her shoulder, taking some of his weight and steadying him.

"We must get you to cooler air."

Lu helped Gern to the top of the crater, where cold mountain air met the rising heat of the magma pool. Gern breathed easier there, and rested against a boulder.

"I need water," Gern said.

Lu darted down to the closest pocket of snow outside the crater, and tried to cup it into her hands. The snow melted and pooled in the bowl of her hands, but she could manage to keep only a little steaming puddle. Then she remembered Gern's water-skin, and she ran to where he had shed his clothes.

She found Gern's things and plucked the water-skin up by the leather strap. It charred under her grip but she got it to Gern, who drank the entire contents.

"I thank you," Gern said. "I'm better, now."

"I do not understand," Lu began. "You seemed immune to fire's power of destruction before. Why does it harm you now, and how is it I can touch you without harming you if you are no longer protected? Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you did nothing wrong, my love. I think...I am just drained from our coupling. There was powerful magic in our joining. I cannot hold my ward against normal fire, but your magic still does not harm me because when you touch me, it is from a fire of compassion."

"Did you just call me your love?" She brought her hand over her heart and stared at Gern with a mix of shock and relief.

He nodded and smiled at her.

"Yes," he said, "I experienced something precious beyond description in our sharing, Lu. It is an important part of me, now, and so too you are important to me. I love you."

"Oh, Gern, I feel it!" She smiled and embraced him, reveling in the glow of love through her empathic link.

Lu gave Gern tender warmth in the nook of two boulders, and they held one another through the night, passing in and out of a light, dream-filled sleep.

When the dawn lit up the sky with a blue glow, Gern stirred into wakefulness, and Lu awoke shortly behind.

"Good morning, lover," Lu greeted with a sleepy smile.

"Good morning, beloved," he replied.

They roused themselves and Gern found his kilt and mantle. He dressed and prepared to leave. Lu bounded down to the ledge by the magma pool and reclaimed her pelvic crystal. She fitted it to herself, then ran back up to Gern.

"Must you go?" Lu asked sadly.

"Yes," Gern replied after a pause. "I must return to my people and lead my grove. Can you come with me?"

"No," Lu responded with lament. "I must guard the crystal forest."

Gern sighed.

"I will walk with you to the edge of the forest, at least." She said, and wrapped herself in a dress of flame.

They descended the mountain and entered into the glittering grove of crystal trees. Gern reclaimed his staff and they walked together in bittersweet silence. When they reached the edge of the forest, Gern froze, looking ahead. A womanly figure stood nearby, in the snow beyond the treeline.

"Who is this?" Lu said, perplexed. "The trees did not announce anyone. Why would they not?"

"Because they cannot sense her." He narrowed his eyes. "She is warded."

"Warded? Like you?"

"Not like me. It's a different kind of magic. Wizard magic. She's a sorceress."

Lu's pupils dilated as she focused on the robed figure. Her voluptuous body suggested a life of luxury. She had an unearthly beauty, as if a spell of youthfulness concealed her true nature. She wore a silky red kirtle with a corset over a black chemise. Her peachy skin was immaculate, and her lips stood out with a glossy-black coloration. Her eyes, too, were framed with matte black shading. Her golden hair was crowned with a headdress of spiraled ram's horns.

"How unexpected," the strange woman mused. "The igniad has a companion."

"Who are you?" Gern asked. "What is your purpose here?"

"I am Evalyn, and I have come to claim this mountain."

"Evalyn, the Witch of the North," Gern said in recognition.

"Indeed. If you value your life, therefore, you shall not interfere."

"You have no claim over this mountain!" Gern asserted.

The woman simply laughed in a chillingly lyrical voice.

"You will not hurt my trees!" Lu called out, her eyes flaring.

"They are just trees, you silly creature," Evalyn retorted.

"You would kill them all for your twisted whims!" Lu's thick hair of smoke rose up, as if lifted by the rising flames of her anger.

"Only a few, is that so cruel? I would be a fool to break down every tree. I am the protector of this forest, now. I want an indefinite supply of enchantment crystals for a new, magically protected army. I shall topple the kingdoms of the world, and all will be free of the petty squabbles of kings and chieftains. Instead they shall have a queen, invincible in a castle of crystal power!"

"Delusions!" Gern spat. "No one can be permitted to have that much power. It will bring only ruin and suffering!"

"Permitted?" Evalyn huffed with amusement. "What authority would you invoke to stop me, handsome?"

"The Balance," he answered, and he squeezed the leather pouch hanging from his neck. His skin seemed to thicken and crack like the bark of a tree.

"How cavalier. Then you, too, shall die." She made a gesture with a flick of her wrist.

Suddenly, two men lurched up out of the snow, wearing white furs. They charged, brandishing swords. One went for Gern, the other for Lu. Gern aimed for the head of his opponent with a swirl of his staff, but it was absorbed by the meaty forearm of his attacker, undoubtably fracturing the bone. The warrior growled with the pain and thrust his sword at Gern's heart. Gern twisted his upper body to let the point of the blade graze off his treebark hide.

Lu flung her hand out towards the man charging her and conjured a fire-twister, spiraling out of her palm. The man charged right through her flames, his furs burning but his skin and even his hair unharmed. Lu lithely dodged out of the sword's arc, and spotted a glowing crystal swinging from the man's neck by a chain.

Lu felt fury, then. She realized the witch was using her own tree's crystal shards against her. They had been enchanted with a powerful magic protecting the wearer from Lu's fire. She back-rolled and leapt up into the nook of a crystal tree. She looked aside and saw Gern holding his own against the brute he was fighting, then checked on the witch. She was just standing there, watching.

"You are helpless without your fire, girlie!" The warrior below taunted.

"I don't need fire to kill you," Lu hissed with boiling rage.

She leapt out of the tree and rolled forward. The warrior struck at where he thought she was going to come up, but she concealed the position of her body with a great flaring of the flames of her dress, and darted in another direction. Her diamond-dense bones supported her against the great strains of her own movements, magical strength surging into her muscles, giving her speed. She was a whisking firestorm.

Gern noticed her acrobatic movements out of the corner of his eye, and was relieved that he could focus on his own opponent without worrying about her. The warriors were skilled, the witch queen's personal assassins. They were both meant for Lu, he realized, and he was sure that Gaia had meant for him to be there on this day. He looked for the right opportunity in the warrior's movements, and countered an attack by feinting then wheeling his staff around to smack him in the side of the head. His skull cracked, the warrior fell into the snow.

Lu leapt up, avoiding a low sweep of her foe's blade with a surge of power in her legs. She flipped over backwards and roundhouse-kicked the warrior in the head. She circled around behind the dazed man, sprung off the ground, then grappled his neck between her thighs, squeezing her pelvic crystal against his vertebrae.

Lu had been in many ambushes before. She knew how to move her body. She knew how to take a life. Before the warrior could whip his sword, she snaked her body and made a powerful twisting, jerking motion with her hips. She broke the man's neck and at the same time tossed him down into the snow.

Gern and Lu looked to each other, then out at Evalyn. The sorceress wore a scowl as she clapped her hands slowly in mock applause. Lu noted that Evalyn wore an enchanted crystal about her neck, like the warriors. Lu renewed her empathic link to Gern, so that they could feel one another in the fight and coordinate their actions.

"Those were my finest fighters," Evalyn said in a vexed tone. "I see your companion, igniad, is no ordinary man. The taste of his magic is..." she tilted her head and half-closed her eyes, as if trying to hear something on the wind, "...earthy. Ahh, I see. He must be a druid."

"Don't believe your eyes," Gern said to Lu. "Her magic will try to trick you with illusions."

"This blade is real enough!" Evalyn said as she drew an ornate dagger. Suddenly, she seemed to glide over the snow at incredible speed, the dagger pointed straight for Gern. He braced himself to dash out of the way, and Lu blasted Evalyn's charging form with a fountain of flame, giving him cover to dodge away. Gern whirled his staff to strike at Evalyn with the opportunity, but his strike passed right through her. At once, he disbelieved the illusion, and narrowly deflected the true dagger from the sorceress' actual position on his flank.

Lu conjured her flames upon Evalyn again, but she was shielded against them with an invisible barrier. Lu knew she was warded against fire, but she used the flames as a distraction to conceal her leaping kick while Gern tried to occupy Evalyn's blade. The blur of Lu's heel shattered a false image of Evalyn as she appeared in multiples, her image shifting and splitting unpredictably. Gern's thoughts were murky. It was like fighting a bad mushroom trip. He remembered the incantation to make things grow, and connected to power from the earth beneath his feet.

"Ním·thí bás!" Gern recited, and thistles and wild peas sprung from beneath the snow with all the strength of growing things in spring. They tangled around Evalyn's feet and stuck to the delicate fabric of her red kirtle. Lu leapt up to deliver a roundhouse kick, but Evalyn made a pushing motion with one palm towards Lu, blasting her away with a wall of frigid air. Lu back-rolled into a crouch, the snow melting around her.

Before Gern could get close to attack Evalyn, she froze all the growing plants solid with a gesture, and shattered them as she broke free. Her kirtle ripped, leaving tattered strips of silk hanging about her alabaster legs.

Evalyn scowled harder as she glanced down to her ruined garment, but then smiled wickedly.

"Do you like what you see, druid?" She said, looking up to Gern. Her voice was pervasive in the air, and Gern could almost hear different words whispering from her lips. He realized too late that his mental barrier was down.

"I--what I see..." he said with a confused expression, "...yes. I do."

Lu looked at Gern with concern.

"Druids are paragons of fertility. Would you like to show me how fertile you are?" She brushed her fingertips up her inner thigh, hiking up what remained of her kirtle. Gern could not help but look. His gaze was pulled by a compelling force to the gap between the sorceress' thighs. Red glyphs were tattooed on the smooth skin around her pink nether lips, and he was possessed of the thought of plundering her body's secrets.

"Yes..." Gern whispered. "I would show you."

"Gern?" Lu said. "What is this?"

"Come to me, Gern," Evalyn commanded. "Join me."

"Gern, no, it is magic!"

Gern dropped his staff and walked toward Evalyn in a trace.

"No!" Lu called and charged the witch.

Evalyn forced her back with another swat of forceful air, then grabbed Gern and held her dagger to his throat.

"I would never harm you," Evalyn whispered in Gern's ear, maintaining her spell over him. "You have lost, igniad!" She called out. "Come before me to bargain for his life, if you have any care for this man." She stroked over his kilt with her other hand, her touch summoning an erection to tent the leather cladding. "He is mine, now."

Lu stood poised, her heart racing. The jealousy burning inside her was white hot. She could not do anything without putting Gern at risk. The thought crossed her mind that she might have to sacrifice Gern's life to make an attack of opportunity and save her grove.

She banished the thought. It caused her too much pain.

"Gern, come back to me!" Lu pleaded.

"You waste your words, dear," Evalyn said. "You can have him back, if you but give me a drop of your blood...as a symbol of your good faith."

Lu's intuition told her that was a very bad idea. With her blood, there is no telling what the witch could do.

"Gern, please..." Lu extended an empathic link to him, pouring all her love into the connection, trying to give him strength.

She felt Evalyn on the other side, with Gern caught between them. Evalyn felt Lu, as well, and their wills competed for influence over the druid, natural magic clashing with arcane power in a mental tug-of-war that brought a snarl to the witch's features. Evalyn could have slit Gern's throat then, but her pride would not allow her to do so, for it would all but concede that her magic was not strong enough.

Lu let go of her fear and remembered the feeling of Gern entering her, and of him giving her his primal life essence. Unlike Evalyn, Lu knew what it was like to connect intimately with him; their love was real. A steamy sigh left Gern's lips, and in an instant he reached up and grabbed the crystal pendant hanging above Evalyn's cleavage. He remembered that crystals were growing things, too.

"Ním·thí bás!" Gern recited, and the crystal shard began to grow.

Evalyn tried to cut Gern's throat, but her arm was violently pushed away from his neck by the growing spikes of the crystal. Gern, too, was thrust aside, his own arm pierced by a shard.

"Naah-noooo!" Evalyn cried as her torso was speared with jutting spikes, sweeping her up in the explosion of growth. When she was suspended above the ground at twice her height, the growth stopped. She was caught in a web of shards, her flesh impaled in many places, some of the spikes pushing all the way through to the other side of her body.

Though her lungs were pierced, Evalyn raised a finger towards Lu, trying to utter a death hex. Lu conjured flame from both her hands, crying out for vengeance as she incinerated the witch in a blinding torrent of raging fire, as if a dragon had unleashed its fury. When the flames stopped, there was naught left but blackened bones cradled atop the monument of unleashed crystalline magic.

"I do believe she is dead, now," Gern commented, putting pressure on his bleeding arm wound.

"Gern, you are hurt!" Lu called, and rushed to his side.

"The wound is gaping, the bleeding will not stop."

"I can close it. Pull your hand away."

Gern removed his hand from the deep, piercing wound, blood flowing out.

"I'm sorry," Lu said, and put her hand over the wound, focusing on destructive fire. Gern yelped in pain as Lu's fire cauterized the wound, sealing it.

Gern fell to one knee and held snow against the burn. He waited until his breathing eased. He rose to his feet once more, his composure regained.

"Thank you, Lu. I should be able to heal it fairly quickly, now."

"I don't know what I would have done if you had not been here, Gern."

"She was a dangerous foe. I have fought against her forces before with my tribe. We need not worry about her machinations any longer."

Lu turned Gern's gaze to hers with a hand against his cheek, and she kissed him. When their lips parted, a smile came to him.

"I will think of you often," Gern told her. "You hold a special place in my heart. I will return here, many times if I can."

"You will come visit me often?" She gushed, smiling again.

Gern nodded.

"But your arm...you are in no condition to transverse the mountains. Won't you stay a little while and heal?"

"Well...it was a long journey. I'm not expected back at my grove for a few days, yet. Would you happen to have anything to eat?"

"I have a pile of rocknuts I like to eat which I would be happy to share with my lover."

"Ah. Could perhaps your mountain spare a rabbit or something?"

She frowned at the thought of eating one of her mountain's cute rabbits.

"I'll give you some fruit." She smiled mischievously, for lava guavas were notoriously spicy.

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