The Horror from the Pool

The names, characters, places and events in this book are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. All characters are over the age of 18. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

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This story is set within my part of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, a vast alternate dimension that can only be entered from this world via dreams. However, you don't need to have read any Lovecraft to hopefully enjoy this tale. For background, my part of Dreamlands loosely resembles my take on Roman North Africa.

"The most merciful thing in the world is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." H.P. Lovecraft

Listen to me and I will tell you of the old days -- those days long gone, never to return, when jeweled cities still stood by the sparkling seas and the world was in harmony. Yes, I was there. When multitudes lived in the cities of stone where now only lizards bask and the screech-owl cries. I will tell you how horror and chaos came.

In the foothills of the Mountains of Aloadæ is a pool that is fed by melt water from the high peaks. Only the bravest or most foolhardy travel very high into the Mountains of Aloadæ as people fear the voices riding on the winds but the foothills near where men live and farm are usually safe enough. The pool is shaded by willows and tamarisks and on a hot day, it is an idyllic place to relax and seek rest.

Once a week Ardys liked to bathe in the secluded pool. With only her slave-girl maid, Gwen, for company, she would leave the villa on the estate she shared with her husband, Wulmar, take food and walk through the cultivated vineyards and olive groves and fields of sweet-smelling lavender. Soon, they were up in the higher scrubland with the delightful scents of laurel and myrtle and sage filling the air while songbirds rose into the sky protesting their intrusion.

The two girls smiled as they walked through sunny groves of aromatic shrubs and low trees, gradually climbing higher into the foothills and leaving the small stands of oak and beech behind. The path wound upwards until they reached the well-known fork. The main path continued along to the village of Gni-With where a white caryatid pillar stands watch over a well that nobody now dares use. However, a narrow path, little more than a goat-trail led up to the pool.

"Stay here," Ardys told the slave-girl, "And, remember, do not let anyone go up the path to watch me bathe."

"No mistress," the maid said, dipping a curtsey. Gwen handed her mistress one of the baskets containing food and a bottle of watered wine and looked on as her mistress climbed up the rocky path to the pool. After she was out of sight, the maid sat in the shade beneath a cork oak, took out her sewing and sat watch to make sure no-one, especially no man, went up the track beyond to the pond while her mistress was using it.

Meanwhile, Ardys climbed still higher up the track through the dappled sunlight, enjoying the summer's heat bringing out the spicy fragrance of the woody plants all around and the liquid singing of warblers all around. It was such a beautiful place.

Finally, she pushed past a bay tree with its dark, glabrous leaves rattling in the warm breeze and beheld the pool. Water sparkled in the sunlight, sending reflections rippling up over the surrounding rocks. Moving forward, she stepped onto a sun-warmed wide, flat rock. Ardys placed the basket containing her meal onto the stone and lowered the wine bottle into the cool water. Looking around to make sure nobody was about; she slipped off her dress and under slip. Standing completely nude she stretched languorously enjoying the sun's heat on her skin.

Ardys crouched and looked down into the water at her reflection. Unlike her husband, Wulmar, who was of the Kobandoi tribe -- a Northern people who had come to these lands over two hundred years previously, driven from their own pastures by savage cannibal Gnophkehs -- she was of the native stock. She looked down at her light chestnut complexion topped by auburn hair which she shook loose. She had generous, full lips and a slightly large nose which she wrinkled but smiled as she did so. Deep brown eyes beneath arched brows gave her a kind yet enquiring face. She raised herself up slightly so she could see more of her body.

Both Ardys and her husband liked her full, well-rounded breasts, tipped with large red-brown areole and nipples. Down to her somewhat curved belly with its delightful dimple of her navel. She raised herself a little more and looked at the perfection of her mound covered in its triangle of hair, partially concealing her slit. She felt herself get a little moist down there. Still lower at her thighs and calves, toned from all the walking and riding she did. She wished her legs were longer but other than that, she knew she was quite attractive and had been courted by many suitors until her father had decided that an alliance with a chief of the nearby Kobandoi would be in their family's best interests.

Ardys smiled as she splashed cold water onto her breasts making her nipples stiffen and tingle with anticipation. She took a step to the edge of the rock, took a deep breath and dived into the chill water. Dozens of silvery fish swam away in panic.

As always, the glacial water shocked her as she dived down into the liquid depths. Her skin tingled as she took several strokes beneath the water before coming up for air. She gasped and then rolled onto her back looking about her. The pool was surrounded by trees and shrubs, shallower at this end but deepening at the far end where a dark grove of willows sheltered a deep underwater hollow which, at the bottom, opened out into a cave. She had never swum more than a few yards into that hollow, knowing that it would be too dangerous to enter. However, the rest of the small lake was safe enough.

Ardys floated on the surface with her eyes closed, gradually drifting over to the shaded hollow at the far side, enjoying the contrast between the chill water beneath and warm sun above. Her nipples were so tense and rock hard and she felt a familiar tingling between her legs; a tingling that required satisfaction. At this time of her month, she often felt so aroused. Ardys let her hand wander down the soft curves of her belly, fingering her belly-button for a moment before continuing down to the thicket between her legs. She opened her thighs and slipped a finger into her wet slit. Her clit throbbed and so Ardys started circling that tender little bud. With her left hand, she cupped her left breast, stroking and pulling on her nipple. Her head arched back as warm feelings surged through her groin. Her finger dipped down to her vagina before returning to stroke and play with her clit, her finger swirling faster and faster. Her eyes closed in expectation of ecstasy.

So she did not notice that all the birds had fallen silent and an instant later took flight into the blue sky. Shoals of silver fish darted away hiding among the reeds. Even the breeze died away and fell still. Nor did she detect movement coming from the hollow at the far end of the pool. The surface rippled as a snake-like object arrowed towards the woman floating in rapture near the center of the pool. Another and still another followed the first snake-like creature.

Ardys cried out, her bliss gone in an instant, as she felt something cool wrap around her calf. Had she been snagged by weeds? Or a serpent? Her eyes flashed open as she cried out with fear. The thing was smooth, featureless and looked like a grey-green suckerless tentacle with a purple tip. It threw a second coil around her calf. Desperately, Ardys thrashed in the water, trying to free her leg from its embrace but she was held fast. She leaned forward, hoping to pull it off her leg so she could swim as fast as she could to shore. To her touch, the tentacle felt rubbery and coated with slime but unholy warmth pulsed off it beneath its cool skin.

With absolute horror she felt a second tendril coil around her other calf, wrapping itself rapidly round and round. Then two more twined themselves around her waist, squeezing her body tightly. She urgently tried to pull those off her middle but then others caught her arms, the tentacles swathing them, spiraling around them, pulling her arms away from her body, holding them fast in their grip. She was trapped by this creature, whatever it was. Staring over towards the hollow she saw dozens more of these vile grey-green tendrils writhing towards her still-struggling form.

She opened her mouth to scream. Would her maid hear her from down the path? But as soon as she opened her mouth a tentacle pushed its way between her teeth and into her mouth, stifling her yell. The feeler pushed its way further into her oral cavity, nudging against the back of her throat and making her gag.

Meanwhile, more and yet more of these rubbery grey-green tendrils encircled every inch of her body. More and more around her arms, legs and torso until she was held fast, immobile within their rubbery embrace until Ardys could struggle no more. She noticed that many but not all of these strangely smooth tentacles had purple tips with a little slit on the end that looked similar to a human penis. Horror and disgust filled her as those tendrils at the top of her body started stroking and squirming up against her breasts. The little slits on two of the palps opened wide and started suckling her nipples in a grotesque parody of breastfeeding. But her nipples betrayed her by becoming rock hard under their attentions and the titillating sensation became a travesty of the pleasure she felt when Wulmar did that as part of their lovemaking. Then her horror increased tenfold as the thicker tendrils below pulled her legs apart. Wider and wider until her sex was fully exposed. And then her horror magnified again when one of these tendrils out of the dozens holding her in place slipped between her legs and pushed against her vagina.

"No," she thought, "This cannot be happening!"

But the tentacle pushed up inside her birth canal despite her tiny, futile struggles.

Then another snaked further down between her legs until it found her tightly clenched anus. But it probed and pushed against her resistance until it was within her body sending sickening sensations in its wake. Then it forced its way deeper and deeper further up and into her colon. And still it carried on impossibly further up and into her body. Her mind was screaming with silent terror.

Again, a third, narrower, whip-like appendage slimed up inside her urethra. Under this assault, a stream of hot urine flowed out over the tentacles exploring between her legs. Ardys looked up at the blue sky, miles above this attack on her body, wanting this to be the last thing she ever saw in this life but then closed her eyes, convinced this was the end of her sanity and life.

Still others came. A tendril touched the delicate button of her clit and started stroking and caressing her; its slimy touch obscenely horrible yet so intimate. Others ran along the engorged folds of her labia. Meanwhile, those feelers wrapped around her breasts massaged those full orbs while those clamped onto her nipples continued sucking, the suction elongating her nips more than ever before. Yet others massaged the sensitive places on her inner thighs and back of her knees and feet sending waves of revulsion but also pleasure to her mind.

Despite the horror and repulsion making her mind sheer away from her plight under the pressure she also experienced noxious pleasure as pheromones in the tentacles' slime inflamed her brain. Her body squirmed and twisted in its bonds as the slippery tentacles held her fast yet also interfered with her naked body. Then those tentacles lodged deep within her body -- her mouth, vagina, anus and even urethra started throbbing and pulsing and pushing in and out. One part of her mind shrieked out while another, more primal part, couldn't help but respond to the sensory overload overflowing her body. Sweat poured from her, mixing with both the tentacles' slime and pond water. Her eyes dilated as her own body betrayed her, responding with lust at the monster's invasion of her most private spaces.

The tentacles thrust in and out slowly at first then faster and faster, their ooze lubricating her holes, mixing with her own juices, still faster and more forcefully penetrating her body with each plunge. Each plunge increased the intensity of her feelings but gradually the erotic feelings overwhelmed her until she became a being of pure sinful greed, yearning for the rubbery caress of the tentacles.

As the throbbing tentacle tips pistoned in and out of her urethra, vagina, anus, Ardys wanted to cry out in ecstasy at the intensity of her pleasure mixed with pain yet her mouth was still stuffed full with the throbbing tentacle that was deep-throating her yet its slimy secretions were stopping her from choking. And all the time her breasts and clit and pussy were being pleasured by the tips. Her back arched in expectation as unwholesome sensations flooded her body. She had never experienced anything approaching this level of excitement, not even on her honeymoon.

And yet, these sensations were merely the prelude to the crescendo that overwhelmed her mind as the tentacle's tips flooded her body with milky-white seed. It seemed as if every cell in her body exploded in a passion of ecstasy as her orgasm roared through her, shattering her consciousness, her mind ripping out, expanding to take in the whole world yet still focused on her needs. She would have cried out except that the feeler in her mouth was also flooding her throat with its abominable seed almost drowning her yet at this moment she gladly swallowed and mentally cried out for more. Pints of the monster's vile secretions flooded her vagina, rectum and even bladder, pumping more and more milky-white fluid into her. It spilled out, polluting the water until both Ardys and the myriad tendrils seemed to be swimming in a soup of secretions in the centre of the pool. Ardys's rapture knew no bounds, her mind given over to the sickeningly delicious feelings racing throughout her body and mind. She wanted it to stop -- she wanted it to carry on for ever.

Yet eventually, the torrent of seed being pumped into her slowed and stopped as the tentacles ceased their thrusting and pounding. Ardys lay back in the creature's clammy embrace, utterly spent, her mind completely gone. Finally, the tendrils slipped out of her holes but one last tentacle touched her forehead and sent a little jolt of amnesia through her skull, into her brain, rendering her unconscious. With that, the vile tentacles lifted her up, out of the water, her body dripping both water and seed into the pond, and lay the comatose woman down by the side of the pool. Then they rapidly uncoiled from her and withdrew back to the deep hollow beneath the willows at the far end and vanished into the unplumbed depths of Stygian caverns far below the surface leaving only ripples behind.

Eventually, Ardys woke. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog of confusion. What an odd dream, she thought, something about snakes? She frowned -- the sun was much lower in the west than it should be. How long had she been asleep? And her naked body felt odd -- fuller and bloated -- and she felt so nauseous. And those odd marks all over her arms and legs as if she had been tied up with ropes. She got to her feet, swaying slightly as she did so, and nearly lost her balance. Wanting to get a drink of water from the crystal-clear pool, she stepped to the ledge's edge and knelt down to scoop some up.

The water was covered in a thin milky-white film but she saw in her reflection more of that dried scum all over her body. She screamed and screamed and screamed until she was violently sick but in her vomit was more of that milky-white fluid. Abandoning her clothes and sandals, she fled down the narrow path, branches and thorns scratching her arms and legs. She tripped over roots yet always ran downhill.

Her slave-girl, Gwen, jumped up in alarm, her hand to her throat, as she heard something crashing through the undergrowth towards her. Her eyes opened wide as she saw her mistress, naked but covered with some kind of slime, stumbling towards her. Gwen opened her arms and caught hold of her mistress, stopping her onward flight. She felt Ardys's heart beating like a drum beneath her skin. Gwen shuddered at the feel of the muck on her hands.

"What happened, mistress; what happened to you?" Gwen kept asking but Ardys made no response.

Gwen looked around, fearing bandits, but they were alone so she steered Ardys along the path back home to the villa. On the way, they paused at a narrow creek so Gwen could wash the sticky muck off her mistress. She paid particular attention to the other woman's engorged sex and wondered what had happened up at that pool. Once she had cleaned as much off as she could she shrugged off her own tunic and slipped it on over her mistress' head. Apart from a rag around her hips and a narrow iron collar denoting her status as a slave, Gwen herself was completely naked but she could not have her mistress' modesty exposed for all to see.

In this way they returned home. But Gwen did not like the way Ardys kept rubbing her belly...